2023 Video Game Innovations EVERYONE Should Copy

8. Experimenting With Dimensions - Viewfinder

Now, Viewfinder might not be the first game to step out of the realm of traditional genres but it is probably one of the few that has done so by basing its entire core gameplay mechanic around a specific feature that has never been done before.

At least, I don’t think it’s been done before. Correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t know all of the video games.

Said feature allows you to pick up a polaroid and use said image to create a traversable 3D world replicated from the 2D image. The new environment can be placed anywhere in the level leading to unconventional and challenging puzzle-solving requiring environmental awareness as well as a fair amount of mental gymnastics. What’s particularly special about this from a development point of view isn’t just the abandonment of traditional genres, which is absolutely a thing we’d love to see more games do, but the creation of a brand new way of utilising the gaming medium.

Despite how many decades of wonderful games both big and small that we have to look back on it’s enormously heartening to see studios are still finding brand new ways for gamers to interact with virtual worlds.