Strategy camera (camera.strategy) #

What it is for #

The camera of a top-down game (MOBA, RTS, strategy), with no interface of its own. It follows the player, or is free; it recentres on a respawn or when the player entity is replaced; it can peek at a point of the map (a minimap click, a ping) and come back; it pans with the screen edge and with the keyboard axes camera.pan_x and camera.pan_y (which free it from the hero) and zooms between minDistance and maxDistance. It knows nothing of the rules of the game, and the engine draws the view. It requires camera.top_down, world.ground, input.actions and game.engine.

Turn it on #

gripforge_gamekit_install   { project_id: "gkp_…", id: "camera.strategy" }
gripforge_gamekit_configure { project_id: "gkp_…", id: "camera.strategy", config: { "panSpeed": 40, "maxDistance": 80 } }

First example #

<!-- test: kits/game_engine/host/tests/parity.rs::rust_host_matches_the_typescript_traces (fixture camera.strategy.modes) --> This replay (a recorded trace the host checks on every run) shows the modes: the camera starts following at the origin, follows the player entity as it moves, lookAt frees it and clamps to the default bounds of ±100, recenter follows again, and peekAt looks at a point while staying in follow mode until endPeek.

snapshot()           -> { "mode": "follow", "focus": [0, 0], "peeking": false, ... }
player created at (5, 7), one tick      -> focus [5, 7]      player moved to (-12.5, 3) -> focus [-12.5, 3]
lookAt(20, 30)       -> mode "free", focus [20, 30]          lookAt(500, -500) -> focus [100, -100]
recenter()           -> mode "follow", focus on the player   peekAt(10, 10) -> peeking true, focus [10, 10], mode "follow"

Settings and defaults #

A game or a mod may change all eight settings. The kit has no hook and emits no event: it publishes variables.

Input actions: camera.recenter (Space) follows the hero again, camera.toggleFollow (Y) switches between follow and free, and the axes camera.pan_x and camera.pan_y pan the camera and free it from the hero. The axes have no key by default, so an existing game keeps its arrow keys; the click-to-move and strategy control schemes bind them to the arrows, and the player can remap them.

Services #

• pan(x, y) sets the pan intent from -1 to 1 on each axis (ignored in follow mode unless edgePanInFollow); lookAt(x, z) centres on a point and frees the camera; peekAt(x, z) looks at a point without leaving follow mode and endPeek() comes back.
• recenter() follows the player again, toggleFollow() switches between follow and free, and zoom(delta) zooms (the delta is limited to -3..3, scaled by zoomSpeed, and the distance is kept between minDistance and maxDistance).
• setViewport(points) hands the screen corners projected on the ground, for a minimap rectangle, and snapshot() answers { mode, peeking, focus, distance, edgeSize, edgePan, viewport }.

Published variables: camera.focus ([x, groundY, z], what the view looks at), camera.control (follow or free) and camera.distance. The camera stays inside the bounds of moba.match.map().camera, else those of world.ground.bounds(), else ±100. It listens to player.died to remember a death even when the revival comes before the next camera tick.

When it does not do what you expect #

• The camera does not move with the screen edge: it is in follow mode (set edgePanInFollow, or free it with toggleFollow()), or edgePan is off.
• The arrow keys do nothing: the axes camera.pan_x and camera.pan_y have no key until a control scheme or the game gives them one.

Limits #

• The kit moves the view point and publishes it; it draws no screen, no minimap and no selection, and it ignores the rules of the map. It is for top-down games and targets the web and native players.

Versions #

1.3.0 (2026-10-10): extension contract of game.engine 1.2, all settings moddable; 1.2.0: keyboard pan axes; 1.1.0: follow stays locked at screen edges, recentre on respawn; 1.0.0 (2026-10-04): first release.