Understanding 2D Camera Work In Games

Super Mario World camera system

Here's an interesting write up on a topic I must admit I have largely taken for granted. Although I have not read through the entire thing, I already find it interesting enough that I think it merit's sharing.

Working on my game Mushroom 11, I was faced with many different design and technology challenges. I wasn't expecting to find references to issues like dynamically changing shapes or vertex animation, but I was quite surprised that camera work, a subject with more than 30 years of history in games, was hardly discussed.

For those of you interested in game design, or art in games, I think it's an excellent read and I appreciate the effort put into understanding these subtleties.