
On the other hand, reducing the player's line of sight will result in disadvantaging the player, as they will have less situational awareness and less time to act to certain problems."įor example, McMillan suggests that a gantry in an FPS level could be seen as a portal due to the way it shifts the tactical situation - and field of view - for players. The crux of it is like this: "Greater line of sight also allows the possibilities for a larger amount of tactical options, as the player will have more time to plan and also a greater situational awareness. "The greater a player's line of sight, the more able they are to plan ahead and think strategically about the game world," he writes.

McMillan writes that "this observation is in relation primarily to the FPS genre," before launching into a diagram-filled exploration of how line of sight affects players.

In a new Gamasutra feature, PhD and educator Luke McMillan - who consults for Ubisoft - writes that line of sight is the "primary metric that alters difficulty" in games, and explores its use in detail.
