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Ken Levine Defends Lair's Control Scheme
A recent Gamers with Jobs podcast (well worth listening to) features co-hosting duties performed by Ken Levine of Irrational/2K Boston, makers of the title BioShock. During the podcast, Levine comes to the defense of Factor 5's Lair , saying that the folks over there may not have had much choice in how to proceed with their game. "Let me speak in these guys' defense for a minute as a game developer. I'm sure somebody came to them at some point and said, 'We have this motion control controller, and we have to make a go of it. And we really think you should try to make your game exclusively on that.' I think you're seeing a lot of this lately. Aren't there a lot of games where you're just like, 'Dude, can I just use the d-pad or the analog stick?' Ever since the DS came out I feel that there have been a lot of games like that. They've been so impressed by their control mechanic that they just really, really want you to play with that." It's still really, really bad.
As someone who actually listened to the podcast, I can say that I distinctly did not get the impression that Levine was defending Lair's control scheme as a good control scheme. He was just making the point that Factor 5 might have been pressured into using the tilt controls. He, in no way, defended how poorly of a job they did implementing the tilt controls. The headline and the quote in the summary are completely out of context.
They mention that in the podcast. Levine admits that he has not played it yet.
Have you tried not waving your hands around like a hyperactive monkey? If you're having trouble with pointing that far off the screen, you're doing something really, really wrong.