Line #38 Main/TopDownView


1	[[quoteright:320:[[VideoGame/PinballDreams https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinball_dreams_6812.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Follow the bouncing ball.]]
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4	Top-down view, also sometimes referred to as bird's-eye view or overhead view, was a common perspective in video games before the advent of 3D, and is still in use in some genres today. Commonly found in RealTimeStrategy games and occasionally in {{Simulation Game}}s that don't use IsometricProjection. It is also used in some ActionGame[=s=], such as the early ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series.
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6	Some of these games, in addition to having the camera angled straight down, also use a perspectiveless top-down projection in which everything on the screen is viewed as if the camera were directly above it. Not everything can be drawn well in this perspective, though, which is why CheatedAngle is often applied to character and item sprites.
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8	See also IsometricProjection, SideView and ThreeQuartersView.
9	----
10	!!Examples:
11
12	* ''VideoGame/ArenaXlsm''
13	* ''VideoGame/BallsOfSteel''
14	* ''VideoGame/BattleChess''
15	* ''VideoGame/{{Bolo}}''
16	* ''VideoGame/BubbleTrouble''
17	* ''VideoGame/TheClassroomTrilogy''
18	* ''VideoGame/CrueBall''
19	* The ''VideoGame/CrushPinball'' series (''Alien Crush, Devil's Crush,'' and ''Jaki Crush'')
20	* ''VideoGame/{{Darkwood}}''
21	* ''VideoGame/DavidsMidnightMagic''
22	* ''{{VideoGame/Decision}}'': this view actually makes some of the giant 10 foot tall zombies ''harder'' to see, as they're the same color as the road.
23	* ''VideoGame/ExtremePinball''
24	* The early ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' games.
25	* The 2D ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games mostly use this view; many of them including the original, have brief side-view sections.
26	* The original ''VideoGame/SimCity'', sort of, though there was an inconsistent bottom-left-to-top-right tilt for most of the graphics, [[http://www.mobygames.com/game/simcity/screenshots see here]].
27	* ''VideoGame/EvolutionWorlds'' uses this as one of its two camera angles.
28	* ''VideoGame/{{Bosconian}}''
29	* ''VideoGame/{{Heartlight}}''
30	* ''VideoGame/HeavyWaterJogger''
31	* ''VideoGame/HellIsOthers''
32	* ''VideoGame/HercsAdventures''
33	* ''VideoGame/HighwayHunter''
34	* ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami''
35	* In ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', the city in the Near Future chapter is depicted in top-down view, which, in a game which holds to ThreeQuartersView everywhere else, sticks out like a sore thumb.
36	* ''[[VideoGame/ANightmareOnElmStreetPC A Nightmare on Elm Street]]''
37	* ''VideoGame/ANobleCircle''
38	* ''VideoGame/ObsessionPinball'' and its PolishedPort, ''VideoGame/AbsolutePinball''.
39	* ''VideoGame/OfGuardsAndThieves''
40	* ''VideoGame/{{Outbreak}}''
41	* ''VideoGame/TheOutlawTheDrunkAndTheWhore''
42	* ''VideoGame/PaqueretteDownTheBunburrows'': The player can see the entire level, but bunnies can't. This means bunnies can run into dead ends or enter tunnels with Pâquerette on the other side. Conveniently, bunnies keep no memory of the level layout.
43	* All of the original games in the ''VideoGame/PinballDreams'' series.
44	* ''VideoGame/PokemonPinball''
45	* ''VideoGame/PsychoPinball''
46	* ''[[VideoGame/ThePunisherPC The Punisher]]''
47	* ''VideoGame/{{Reassembly}}''
48	* ''VideoGame/RedZone'': Both helicopter and on-foot levels have a top-down view. Unusual for a Platform/SegaGenesis game, walls and structural objects are rendered with a 3D perspective that varies with the player's position, though it's fairly obvious that the latter are composed of flat sprites stacked on top of copies of themselves.
49	* ''VideoGame/RobotRascals''
50	* ''VideoGame/RollerBall''
51	* ''VideoGame/RuinerPinball''
52	* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogSpinball''
53	* ''VideoGame/StickRPG'' (First game)
54	* ''VideoGame/SwordDancer'' is one of many RPG for the Platform/PC98 that use this style. Although in battle this changes to a 2D FightingGame perspective. One of the first games to do this.
55	* ''VideoGame/TaskMaker''
56	* ''VideoGame/TastyPlanet''
57	* ''VideoGame/{{Tauronos}}''
58	* ''VideoGame/TempleOfApshai''
59	* ''VideoGame/UncleAlbertsAdventures''
60	* ''Urban Yeti!''
61	* ''VideoGame/WarioWare''
62	* ''VideoGame/TheWorldsHardestGame''
63	* Many early DigitalPinballTables, such as the ''VideoGame/CrushPinball'' series (''VideoGame/AlienCrush, VideoGame/DevilsCrush, '' etc.)
64	* Done as an art style in Creator/WilliamsElectronics' "rollercoaster" pinballs (''Pinball/{{Comet}}, Pinball/{{Cyclone}},'' and ''Pinball/{{Hurricane}}''); the playfields are drawn so the player is looking down on the AmusementPark attendees from high overhead.
65	* Spacecraft in ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' are depicted in top-down view. Character sprites, however, make a generous use of CheatedAngle, especially the Lanius whose downward-facing sprites look rather like player-facing sprites.
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67	!!Top-down projection
68	* Practically all VerticalScrollingShooter[==]s (''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'', ''1942'', etc…)
69	* Most all {{Roguelike}}s, to the degree that ASCII art can be said to have perspective.
70	* Many TwoDSpace games (''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}}'', ''Star Castle'', etc…)
71	* ''The Bilestoad''
72	* The first two ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity'' games. ''Nova'' instead gave everything a [[ThreeQuartersView 3/4ths tilt]].
73	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftPizzaDelivery'': [[ZigZaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. For the most part, the game is viewed in this manner, but in the over-world, while the cars are shown like this, the buildings are seen from a ThreeQuartersView, likely to make navigating the over-world easier.
74	* ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' has this in World 5-2, which is designed in {{homage}} to ''The Legend of Zelda'' for its [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary]]. ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', its sequel, has an AutoScrollingLevel in this view.
75	* ''VideoGame/TinyHandsAdventure'': Two of the levels, "Knossos Walkabout" and "Seaside Maze", are viewed from above.
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77	!!Non-Video Game Examples
78
79	[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]
80	* ''Film/Exit0'': The first shot of the movie is a top-down view of the car containing [[TheProtagonist The Protagonists]] driving along a road.
81	* ''Film/TheSwarm2020'': The first shots of the movie are a top-down view of a road through a cornfield as the intro credits roll.
82	* ''Film/TheWidow2020'': Some shots of the van driving through the woods are filmed from a bird's-eye view, right over it.

Context Main / TopDownView