Tag Archive for 'Gameplay'

Head Tracking Display Possible with Wiimote

Published
on January 26, 2008
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Tycho at Penny Arcade posted a video demonstration on creating a head tracking display using a Wiimote by Carnegie Mellon student Johnny Lee.

Setting technical details aside, this sort of display creates an image that moves as you move. When you move closer, you see more, and you see less when moving farther away. When you duck or move to the side, the screen compensates and moves with you.

This isn’t perfect. You can’t actually turn your body to turn the display, and only one person can use the setup at a time. But for that one person, as Johnny Lee points out, it will be like looking through a window at something real rather than at a picture.

You will look like a wonky dork wearing infrared lights on your head, but this is a great direction to take Wii technology and make some truly immersive games. Just couple some Johnny Lee infrared LED glasses with one of those curved Alienware monitors, and we have virtual reality.

If that’s not up your alley, Lee also has a how-to video to make your own interactive whiteboard and iPhone like touch screen using your Wiimote on his Web site.

The ‘Essence of Mario,’ According to Creator Miyamoto

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on November 8, 2007
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Nintendo President Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto, who needs no introduction, had an interesting conversation about the nature of Mario, readable on Wii.com.

This is the fourth in a series of transcribed queries by Iwata regarding Super Mario Galaxy. The game is released in Japan, and the North American release is only four days away. On a side note, such transparent production is an increasingly popular trend used to build community interest.

The two Nintendo gods discussed co-op play, new technology, the significance of Super Mario Galaxy and the “Essence of Mario.” Miyamoto described this essence as “form around function,” unique and original objects and obstacles that look like what they are.

“If you look at the Boos for example, and their peek-a-boo reaction when you turn the other way, you’ll see that they’re very shy, and they blush too. I think it’s aspects like these that point out the importance of designing things with functions that can be easily understood,” he told Iwata.

Even the now ubiquitous turtle was developed this way. “I remembered an experience I once had when I was working on Mario Bros. [Gunpei] Yokoi-san asked me, ‘What’s something that wouldn’t be able to move if I hit it from underneath?,’ and I replied, ‘A turtle, of course,’” said Miyamoto.

Miyamoto’s definition of Mario does not include the cutesy art style that’s become so common. Instead, this art style is the result of his attempts to make things in the game simple and easy to understand.

“Because people believe that the characters should be that way, they make assumptions on their own, like how the eyes should be always big and bright. But I don’t really draw my characters like that,” Miyamoto said. “I think it’s perfectly OK for Mario to be drawn in a cool way, and by that I don’t mean drawing him specifically to be cool, but that the overall design treatment turns out looking cool. So in the past, I’ve always tried to not design anything that looks childish, and change the design depending on the game.”

Wii and DS In Hand, Nintendo Focuses On Multiplayer

Published
on November 5, 2007
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Is Nintendo becoming a multiplayer-only developer? MTV’s Steven Totilo postulates that they are.

“Nintendo’s console is a party console, destined to mark the end of Nintendo-crafted single-player game designs,” Totilo wrote on his blog earlier today. “I fully expect the next Zelda, the next Donkey Kong, even the next Mario role-playing game to be designed in such a way that at least two players will be able to enjoy the main game mode simultaneously.”

Totilo backed up his theory with a look at Nintendo’s marketing, sales and upcoming games, as well as comments by top industry personas.

Whether or not Totilo is correct, Nintendo is clearly taking the road less traveled. Both the Wii and the DS went in radically different directions than their chief competitors, introducing new approaches to gameplay rather than upping the ante technology-wise.

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s president, recently called the current console business model, with 4-year generations, “too inflexible,” according to Next Generation. “When we will be able to launch a new kind of hardware will actually depend on when we can change entertainment completely,” he said.

Totilo concluded his analysis. “Where I’m going with all of this is the idea that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess may be a relic of a previous era. When the Wii is old, I expect that game to look like an aberration: a freakishly lonely experience offered in a library of titles designed primarily for group indulgence.”

Multiplayer is becoming more and more of a draw to games, inviting casual gamers to play online or with friends. The Wii especially, with its simple and enjoyable controls, has always been a party system. And given Guitar Hero III’s success, the multiplayer trend clearly is not limited to Nintendo. These games are easier and cheaper to develop, sell like hotcakes and produce sequels like rabbits.

With all this going against them, I certainly hope we won’t see an end to top-notch, big budget single player games, as Totilo envisions. Let’s hope Mass Effect will stick it to the multiplayer competition this Thanksgiving.

Lost Odyssey to Have 20 Hours of Cutscenes

Published
on October 3, 2007
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At a pre-Tokyo Game Show conference, Mistwalker’s Hironobu Sakaguchi revealed new information about the developer’s upcoming Xbox 360 JRPG Lost Odyssey.

One of the most surprising details Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, mentioned pertains to game length. He estimated that Lost Odyssey will take 40 hours to beat and includes 20 hours of event scenes. Essentially, it’s Xenosaga on steroids.

The game has a deep backstory, with the cursed main character having lived for no less than 1,000 years, and many event scenes explore his accrued memories. Interestingly, much of the backstory is explored via passages written by Japanese author Kiyoshi Shigematsu.

According to Sakaguchi, there are 34 written passages, and each takes between 5 and 10 minutes to read. That means as much as 6 of the game’s 20 hours of event scenes are reading.

I understand that a good story needs depth, and many a good game employ writing to explore it, including the recent Oblivion with its library of history books. But Sakaguchi may be going to far with this, entirely divorcing gameplay from what may be necessary developments in the story. It will be interesting to see how this game is received.

Lost Odyssey will release in Japan this December.

REVIEW: ‘Halo 3′ Ending Melds Gameplay and Story

Published
on September 30, 2007
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I spoke about using plot pressure rather than actual pressure to create compelling gameplay in a previous post, and Halo 3 provides a perfect example of such a device.

[Spoiler Warning: Details on the end of Halo 3 follow.]

Continue reading ‘REVIEW: ‘Halo 3′ Ending Melds Gameplay and Story’

The Point of Games

Published
on September 11, 2007
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Whether they seek to educate or persuade, “serious games” only occasionally succeed commercially or even appear in game stores. But they are becoming increasingly prevalent, and more mainstream titles are picking up their new approach to gaming.

Simulation games, which seek to accurately reproduce real world systems, educate the player on those systems. Sim City demonstrated all the variables necessary for a city to function properly and rewarded efficient urban planning. Flight Simulator allows the player to fly a plane with all the controls and obstacles that a real pilot would encounter.

These games sacrifice fun and gameplay, the two essential aspects of most commercial titles, in favor of realism. Similarly, games such as Brain Age and the recently announced Wii Fit are designed for more than just fun: They are intended to improve the player, either through physical or mental exercise.

A recent slew of serious games intend to influence the player’s opinions, taking the realism of simulations and applying it to a message. Orwell Today’s simulation of JFK’s assassination challenged players to reproduce the shots which killed Kennedy, shooting from Lee Harvey Oswald’s position. While notably morbid, failure would prove that there was more than one shooter.

Even governments have seen the persuasive potential of games. The US military uses America’s Army, a realistic first-person shooter, as a recruiting tool, and Iran’s Save the Port promotes Islamic beliefs.

The utility of games for arguing a point has been picked up by commercial games as well. For example, Army of Two designer Chris Ferriera commented in an interview with Gamasutra that the very modern issue of private military contractors is an important part of his game’s setting.

Ian Bogost, the author of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames who recently appeared on the Colbert Report, comments in his blog that many commercial games–such as Sim City and Grand Theft Auto–consistently reference and provide allegorical insight into real world events.

These examples take games in a new, more meaningful direction, hinting at a future where an argument or theme is at the heart of any good game.

The Odd Couple: Gameplay and Story Working Together

Published
on September 7, 2007
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At this year’s Austin Game Developers Conference, Matt Costello of Polar Productions addressed the need for story and gameplay to work in concert, Gamasutra reports. Costello used his experience writing for Doom 3 and the upcoming games Rage and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 to show how the plot can shape the game.

“Add the parameters from the beginning of the session — something at stake, something dangerous,” said Costello. “It changes the tenor. It can be a dangerous and exciting puzzle. Think of an interaction that fits that world, and then think of storytelling parameters from story and books and movies.”

Pressure from the plot is an influential aspect of almost any game, whether you’re pushed into rushing forward to save the princess or stop the villain. Even in simple shooting games, shooting alien invaders becomes that much more pressing when mankind’s survival is at stake.

The plot in these situations adds something to the gameplay, making it a necessary and pointed goal rather than an arbitrary task to be methodically completed. Far too often are they developed separately and one becomes an excuse for the other.

Interestingly, Costello said that player interaction in games is only an illusion: “If you think you’ve impacted things, you’ve impacted things. The illusion of interactivity is what you want to deliver.”