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New Genres For The Revolution
Last week's Gamasutra question of the week dealt with the possibility of new genres for Nintendo's Revolution system. Some interesting answers from the industry, as always. From the article: "I would say the interesting part is not what new genres will come about, but how most existing genres will be transformed by this. For example, fighting games will no longer have to be about special moves and combos when you can simply put one controller in each hand and start punching and blocking like in real life (maybe strap one on a leg to kick). "
My big fear is that the Revolution is going to over-popularize shallow physical gaming such that everyone starts doing it and suddenly cooking simulators and orchestra-conducting games are going to be popping up on all formats.
So what's next? I think Simpson's nailed it!
Bart: I want to go to the Yard Work Simulator.
Marge: But when I ask you to do yard work... *sigh*
Will I have to argue with my co-worker to get them away from their "Work Simulator"?
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
For example, fighting games will no longer have to be about special moves and combos when you can simply put one controller in each hand and start punching and blocking like in real life
With our luck, we'll have the kids doing the Mighty Morphin' power rangers coreographic routines to activate the combos..
Huh (move) hah (move) hah (move) hoh!
(eew)
But esoteric fighting games are about learning how to play and getting really good at it. They're not designed as "authentic fighting simulators", they're just games, in much the same sense chess is just a game and not an "authentic war simulator". Minimalist fighting games can be fun too, but they aren't "better at being fighting games" (nor the other way around) or anything... Likewise, I don't think that the Revolution's controller is some "holy grail" for fighting games. It will lead to a bunch of fun ones, I'm sure, but they won't be something all previous fighting games were "trying to be".
Sendou Wave Kick!!
I believe that, best-case scenario, the Revolution's controller is going to give developers the "Permission to Think Freely," to borrow the term.
If conventional wisdom is correct, creativity in large game development studios is hampered by publishers' requirements: bring about a return on their investments by recreating past successes. (This means sequels and titles that stick closely to existing genres.) The smallest developers often follow a similar path: they want to start turning a profit so that they can actually eat lunch once in a while. So, they (the ones who are supposed to be doing all the innovating!) tend to stick to tried-and-true themes as well. Just look at all the Match 3 games out there.
Perhaps the Revolution's controller, simply by being completely nutty, is going to give larger development studios the impetus to ask what crazy things they can do with it? Publishers will not only allow this approach, but demand it. Their press releases will be filled with all the newfangled things a particular title will do with the controller.
Maybe.
I do lament the fact that, out of the Big Three, the platform that seems to court indies the most is the one that has received such a lukewarm reception. If Nintendo opened things up similarly, I'd love to be able to develop games for use with the Revolution controller.
But maybe that's just the lazy me talking. When I think about it, there's probably plenty of innovation we can pull out of the keyboard and the mouse.
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
We don't know exactly how it works, but we have some pretty good hints:
1. The controller is supposed to contain a gyroscopic sensor, like the one found in WarioWare Twisted. It may control more than one, since it's supposed to be able to detect pitch and yaw as well.
2. The console is supposed to come with sensors to place on the TV, so those can be used to not only figure out how large the screen is (useful in figuring out where on the screen the controller is pointed) but also distance through triangulation. That may be done with infrared or RF.
This page specifically says "[The controller] interacts with a sensor bar placed above, below, or near televisions. The bar contains two sensors that communicate with the controller using Bluetooth technology."
OTOH, i could see the warning on the packages:
Yeah, isn't that terrible? Games that reward skill and experience! Heaven forbid! I mean, what's the point of a game where a newbie can't defeat a seasoned player by smashing the buttons really fast?
Circumcision is child abuse.
I love how people with little knowledge of history laud Nintendo as visionaries for things that have been done before...
For instance, Electroplankton was preceded by over 20 years, by things like this, and this, and this, and this - and those are just by one guy, and those are just the ones I know about. Jeff Minter can't have been the only guy making this sort of thing, there's probably been a pile of them in academia too.
As for the virtual pets, ignoring Tamagotchi and whatnot there have been virtual dogs and more imaginative or more prosaic electronic companions for a while too - Little Computer People came out over 20 years ago as well.
Nintendo may popularise many things, but don't make the mistake of thinking they come up with them all...
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Think of controlling...let's just say for common reference point, controlling a Macross style Veritech fighter in robot mode. You can make the robot go in any direction in any time by moving the controller in that direction. This ALONE would actually provide much more control than any other single controller that I've ever seen. Full 3-d axis control. Put on top of that the ability to change the angle of reference by pointing the controller in a different direction. It would probably be foreign for about..10 minutes? Then it would become comfortable. After a few hours, then it would become natural. After a few days of play, assuming a top-notch level of responsiveness, you'll be amazing yourself with the feats that you can perform.
Unfortunately, American football (or even soccer) is not violent enough teach true hand-to-hand combat that occasionally break out in European stadiums.
It wont be the person with the better memory that wins, but the one with the most controllers duct taped to various appendages.
:p
Please don't tell me what appenges you are thinking about, I just don't want to know
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Not only does the controller appear to have a large number of degrees of freedom, all the ideas for having one player use multiple controllers magnifies this immensely. The genius is that it will be *intuitive* to use multiple controllers. One in each hand is the obvious bit, and the article suggested strapping one to a leg for kicking in a fighting game. One person suggested making a headset for "free-look" type uses. You could have a fighting game with one controller in each hand to punch/block, one on each leg for kicking/moving, and one on your head for ducking/dodging etc. 5 controllers all for one person might seem inane, but if they made alternate controllers that had no buttons but just the positioning detection with little velcro straps, you would no longer feel like an idiot strapping one to your ankle. Now, once you imagine this little "mini" controller sans buttons, there's all kinds of interesting new directions. I don't know how many of these can talk to the Revolution hardware simultaneously, but if you could get 12-16 going at once, you could have all kinds of fun with "home motion capture." Imagine a movie making "game" where you act out all the parts in motion capture. Imagine a totally new style of dancing game, where you *really* dance. Or imagine a dance instruction "game" for two people. You and your partner strap on ankle bracelts, wrist bracelets, and maybe something around the shoulders, and really dance. Add in a scoring mechanism for accuracy, toss in an online component for competition, and you're in a whole new world. Now you're really talking about a revolution.
.5 sec while the animation finishes. In effect, now you're just talking about mouse gestures in 3D space. If the on-screen avatar doesn't track your movements accurately, smoothly, and convincingly, then you're just memorizing gestures to trigger a move--and that would be physically tiring with not much reward, and we'll go back to pressing buttons.
However, this also illustrates the biggest challenge to be faced by Revo developers, IMHO. In all current games, your characters have canned animations to represent your moves. You press the A-button or whatever, and the sword swipe animation playes. It's pre-rendered, beginning to end. Revo games will have to do realtime skeletal animation, so that you can begin swiping your sword, check it mid-stroke, and block with your shield. If you use physical movement to trigger canned animations, it will feel surreal, and you'll quickly give it up because it won't be responsive. You'll start to swipe your sword, and the game won't respond for
In my opinion, this is a good thing. For *years* what we've needed is better physical modelling, not better graphics. Better physics and better AI are really the key to better gaming. Graphics have been mostly "good enough" for 5 years, while physics and AI have only changed marginally since 3D games became ubiquitous. AI's a tougher nut to crack, but we have to have physics to make our virtual worlds interactive. So hopefully developers will target the older demographic that Nintendo is after. They don't really give a rip about better graphics (to a point), but make the controlls unresponsive, the physical simulation overly simplistic, or otherwise make the experience jarring, and you'll lose them in 5 minutes flat, never to return. Win them over, though, and I think you'll have a license to print money.
If anybody has the guts to try something really radical, there are interesting times ahead. We shall see...
Looking at the picture in the referenced article it looks like Nintendo changed the controller a bit and it looks like that it may either be an analogue or a digital joystick. It also has two underside buttons, vs the one in the initial version. Compare:
- controller-at-a-glance-20050915061358181-000.jpgn trol.jpg
- original: http://things.wordherders.net/archives/revolution
- article: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060215/rev-co
This leads me to believe that Nintendo is still tweaking the controller and that we may see some more changes in the final version.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Even if they're mutant turtles?
Yep. To learn that kids are going to have to play hockey.
Agreed. And if you're allowed to match it up so that one person "moves" to execute their moves, while the other just pushes buttons....the one who's just pushing buttons will have a HUGE advantage because of the speed with which they can push them. That's why I've always preferred the PS2's joystick for Gran Turismo as opposed to the racing wheel....I can simply execute my moves quicker with the buttons than having to turn the whole wheel, etc.
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