Visibility
Video game concept
A container group for various effects, designs, contrivances, & such that manage how and what the player can see of the videogame world & its contents
This is a container group; its children are:
| Circadian cycle | Day and night cycles on their own outside of plot, location, or triggered events, possibly influencing NPC activities accordingly. | 1979 / 2023 | 488 games |
| Cloaked NPCs | Includes creatures that are either completely or partially invisible. (too short) | 1993 / 2023 | 108 games |
| Dark | The environs are unusually dark, either because it's a perpetual night, you're stuck in a structure with limited light sources or anything else, forcing you to use any light source(s) you can find or cope with what little you can find in the env (too long) | 1973 / 2024 | 423 games |
| Detector | Player must or can use special detectors that reveal things otherwise imperceptible. (too short) | 2001 / 2015 | 28 games |
| Distorted vision | Something can cause the protagonist's vision to get distorted or otherwise impaired. Especially cases where the vision is always distorted | 1994 / 2020 | 220 games |
| Facing | The direction people, vehicles, or any other things are facing affects gameplay in some manner. (too short) | 1992 / 2022 | 90 games |
| Field of vision | Simulates field of vision to a degree, making characters unable to see 360 degrees unless they're nonhuman, augmented or otherwise different. | 1998 / 2017 | 27 games |
| Flares | Hand tossed flares. (too short) | 1999 / 2015 | 29 games |
| Fog of War | Employs a fog of war, especially when it restores it once no-one sees in the revealed area anymore. (too short) | 1979 / 2021 | 238 games |
| Glow sticks | (too short) | 2007 / 2018 | 8 games |
| Vision indicator | Player is given some form of indicator of where other characters can see. (too short) | 1 game | |
| Infravision | (too short) | 1995 / 2018 | 11 games |
| Invisible foes | Includes opponents that are visually completely undetectable. (too short) | 1983 / 2020 | 14 games |
| Invisible platforms | Platforms that normally are normally undetectable. Some may become visible under certain circumstances and others may even be intangible unless something is done to or near them. | 1998 / 2018 | 24 games |
| Invisible walls | Players' ability to fully explore and/or utilize their surroundings is thwarted by unexplainable invisible barriers. | 1989 / 2019 | 140 games |
| Portable light source | Player can employ a lamp, flashlight, torch, or any other device, magic, or natural phenomena that produces light to better see in darkness. | 1979 / 2023 | 536 games |
| Light | Light and illumination plays a vital role in gameplay, and not simply by dispelling darkness. (too short) | 1979 / 2015 | 39 games |
| Line-of-sight | Enhances realism, simulating visibility constraints with objects obstructing or limiting sight. Players must strategize and navigate obstacles thoughtfully. | 1982 / 2021 | 166 games |
| Nightvision | (too short) | 1997 / 2016 | 43 games |
| Radar | Player has a radar or similar device, or an unexplained display that mimics it, that gives positional info to player of various objects of interest and possibly friend-or-foe detection. Whether or not it is a literal radar. | 1973 / 2020 | 410 games |
| Secrets: Invisible | Includes secrets that are completely undetectable until discovered, usually by bumping into them accidentally and revealing them. | 1983 / 2014 | 19 games |
| Tunnel vision | A condition where person sees only the center (focal) part clearly or sees only that part with everything else indistinguishable. | 1999 / 2014 | 9 games |
| Visible LASERs | Non-weapon grade LASERs are peculiarly visible to normal human sight. (too short) | 1978 / 2020 | 87 games |
| Vision enhancer | Player has some device, ability or piece of magic that somehow enhances their normal vision. (too short) | 1999 / 2012 | 28 games |
| Vision modes | Includes different view modes that convey different or additional information not otherwise available. | 1995 / 2015 | 31 games |
| Weather effects | Weather plays a role that affects gameplay besides creating mood or limiting visibility. (too short) | 1977 / 2022 | 83 games |
| Weirdvision | Any vision mode, tool, or such that can't be adequately described by anything else. Often has a name that suggests scifi tech (e.g. nanovision), supernatural powers (second sight), or such. | 1999 / 2019 | 51 games |
| X-ray vision | Any vision mode, tool, or such that allows the player character to see through walls and other vision obscuring obstacles, regardless if it's literally an x-ray vision or not. | 2000 / 2016 | 24 games |