A feature that auto-adjusts the camera so it matches the player’s move/forward direction. Usually only useful for 3D 3rd person games.
Should be activatable from a menu so this can be off if a user does not want it. This feature should never overwrite the manual camera controls but rather slowly rotate the camera to match the intended direction as the player character moves.
The purpose of this feature is to reduce the cognitive load on the player but also allow control of the game by only using one stick on the controller or only the keyboard or mouse on the PC.
Feature Description
If the camera is currently not controlled manually it will slowly move to match the intended camera location/direction.
The location should be an area and the direction should accept a range instead of a specific angle. This is to avoid constant camera movement by small control inputs.
While the player character is moving and not manually controlling the camera the speed for the camera to reach the desired position/rotation should be increased depending on the speed. Exact values differ between projects but trying to reach the desired position/rotation once the character has moved ~1.5 this distance of its longest proportion is a good place to start with.
Alternative Approaches
God of War had a system that recentered the camera each time the player attacked, this resulted in a very dynamic approach that allowed to ignore camera controls during combat while still offering a static picture while the player is not actively engaging. Since this method is directly linked to combat a different system is needed outside of combat.
Traditional lock-on systems from games like Dark Souls or Kingdom Hearts can also help here since they will focus the camera on a single enemy so the only input required is the initial lock-on activation.
Additional Reading
Gaming with One-Hand
