I'm trying to describe a the scenario where you use a joystick to turn the camera. However, I'm struggling to find the word for this. Saying the joystick is "pressed" could mean the joystick is pressed in (as in when you press a playstation controller's joystick and it clicks).
What word describes when a joystick is held in a cardinal direction?
It isn't probably universal, but, as Ferreira said, it is probably Tilt. A good bit of Xbox 360 games refer to the action you are describing as "titling the joystick to the [direction]".
Another term I've seen before in real games is :
"Push the joystick {forward, backward, to the left, to the right}".
Because your thumb makes a push motion in an axis, which most likely will be forward or backward from his point of view, or on the left or the right.
It all depends on your audience and the medium your game is on, but on consoles, this is the better form to make it accessible to casual players.
