Vision cones
Enemy sight is visualized as a cone or field projecting from each guard, making exactly what they can and can't see explicit to the player. Invisible, Inc. and Commandos display precise vision cones, turning stealth into a readable spatial puzzle of moving through the gaps. Designers use vision cones to make stealth fair and legible (the player can see the threat geometry and plan against it), to turn infiltration into a solvable positioning problem, to enable deliberate route-planning, and to create tension as cones sweep and overlap. Key decisions: whether cones are always visible or only in certain modes (full visibility suits tactical stealth; hidden cones suit immersive/reactive stealth), cone shape and range (and how peripheral versus focal vision works), dynamic cones (guards turning, patrolling) versus static, and how cover, distance, and light modify detection within the cone. Pitfall: fully-visible vision cones make stealth a clean puzzle but can drain tension and immersion (it becomes a geometry exercise), while hidden vision demands other strong feedback — the design must match the cone's visibility to whether it wants stealth to feel like a tactical puzzle or a tense, reactive sneak.
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: stealth, tactics
Seen in
- Invisible, Inc.
- Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines