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Interview With 'Populous' Creator Peter Molyneux
Anonymous Coward writes: "Gaming magazine Spank! has posted a new interview with Peter Molyneux, the madman behind Black & White, as well as the classic games Populous and Dungeon Keeper (amongst others). The interview is all over the place, with Peter talking about the genesis of Black & White, his thoughts on the upcoming next-generation console systems, his beloved Tamagotchi (which was drowned in a cup of coffee during Dungeon Keeper's crunch time), his thoughts on Pokemon, and if you can believe it, other topics as well."
Actually in practice I think this will work pretty well. I've not actually played the game, but I did use a CAD like graphics API once (whose name eludes me) with a gesture recognition part built in. Basically what it did was generate some unique number based on your series of mouse movements, and you could then tie the number generated to a particular command.
That actually worked pretty well - you would circle something to zoom in on an area, you could shake the mouse right to left to delete something, etc. It was even pretty tolerant of variation in movement, so you did not have to be absolutley accurate for it to recognize what you did.
It is true that in the middle of a game things might be different. I'd reccomend getting a 3M precision mousing surface, then putting that on top of a normal mousepad (as they tend to slip on desks by themselves).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Lionhead have developed a new technology - 'Gesture Recognition' technology - which allows spells to be cast, practised and perfected by mouse movement. To cast a firewall, for example, you must sweep the mouse in a circle. From this gesture, Lionhead's GR technology can sense the type of spell you wish to cast and (according to how accurately the spell was executed) determine how strong it was.
Now this sounds all very well in theory, but how does it actually work out in real life? My mouse here at work is a bit of a bastard - when you try and move it left the ball sometimes sticks and doesn't move. Wouldn't this make playing the game pretty much impossible, or at the very least cut down on the available options?
Even if I had a fully flowing mouse I still don't know if I like the sound of this all that much. Why should the strength of a spell be linked to how well you can sweep the mouse in a circle? For an action game then sure, but for a strategy game this seems more like a gimmick than a genuine aid to play.
Can anyone who has played Black&White tell me what this is like in practice?
Basically, you are a god with a set of people who worship you. That sounds familiar, but this time you can "make a difference" as it were, for good or worse.
You have groups of people that worship you to provide you with power, and also you get to pick any animal in the land to be your familar - a beast that will grow to huge size and aid you in your fight against other gods.
The other aspect of the game is that as you perform good or evil actions, your followers, your land, even you familar will alter in apperance as well.
One really interesting aspect of the game is that there are no more control icons, only your Hand. You can pick up followers or your familar with it, and use it to cast spells by gesturing - here's a bit from the technology page that describes it:
Lionhead have developed a new technology - 'Gesture Recognition' technology - which allows spells to be cast, practised and perfected by mouse movement. To cast a firewall, for example, you must sweep the mouse in a circle. From this gesture, Lionhead's GR technology can sense the type of spell you wish to cast and (according to how accurately the spell was executed) determine how strong it was.
It is true that pretty much every game magazine and web site has been covereing this for some time, though I agree they should have at least provided a link to Lionhead's web site!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've got to say, Peter Molyneux is, in the gaming realm, pretty much my idol. I'm not one for hero worship, and I don't follow his every move or copy the way he dresses or anything, but I firmly believe in every game he has written, and in every game he will ever write/direct, and he has never done me wrong. From Power Monger to Populous to Syndicate to Dungeon Keeper, he has been innovative, created a solid piece of software and I have always enjoyed the game, often for many months. I still crave Power Monger.
:)
Of course he's not entirely responsible for it himself, but it seems to follow him around, through Bullfrog and now Lionhead it seems, so I choose to hold him responsible
I still remember learning 68000 assembler from an article Bullfrog did for Amiga Format years ago.
As an example to the gaming industry as a whole, I would have great difficulty picking anyone better. There are others who are better technically (John Carmack for example) and sometimes strategically (Sid Mier perhaps? I don't know) but for the sheer combination of gameplay, interface, innovation, and unadulterated joy, Peters games have caught me every single time.
I look forward very much to the debut of Black&White, and even more so to whatever he comes up with in the future.
You can't win a fight.