The Chiz

Games, Toys, and BrainSpam
Nov 24

Gesture-Based Control and Tactile Feedback

Design, Gadgets, Games, Hardware, Previews, Toys, Uncategorized, Video Games 5 Comments »

Last week, the Montreal International Game Summit came and went in an incredible flurry of keynotes, roundtables, exhibitions, and (of course) bar nights in downtown Montreal. Being a game development student in a city only two hours away from Montreal, myself and a bunch of my classmates had the opportunity to check it out, and for many of us for the second or third time. Over the next couple of weeks I will be discussing the incredible keynotes and conferences, as well as posting some photos of the event. Right now though, I’d like to go over some of the more interesting booths in the exhibition hall.

Compared to bigger gatherings like the Penny Arcade Expo or GenCon, MIGS had a relatively small collection of “booths.” However, since this is an industry summit and not a convention, the booths had a lot more to offer by way of development and business opportunity. One of the booths that really caught my eye was set up by Mgestyk, a Kanata, Ontario based company that focuses on engineering hardware and software for their gesture-based “Mgestyk” digital input system.

Think of the Sony Playstation’s EyeToy. Anyone familiar with this piece of hardware knows how much fun optical input can be, but also knows about it’s relative lack of precision, especially in sub-prime lighting conditions. On the other hand, the Mgestyk system seemed pretty accurate in the variable lighting conditions of the MIGS exhibition hall (the lighting changed depending on what else was happening in the main hall.)

I got to try out the camera system at two seperate times, and with two seperate games. The first was a driving simulator, with the player perspective seated inside of the car. To operate the vehicle, I had to hold my hand out to the camera, gripping an invisible steering wheel. The software then recognized the specific configuration of my posture and hands, and took that as a signal to accelerate. As long as I held my hands in this position, I was able to steer the car by mimicking the hand movements that one would use on a steering wheel. To stop or reverse, I simply had to raise my thumbs while keeping my hands in the same location. The software noticed the difference, and the game reacted accordingly.

The other game was a light-saber battle with little ball and socket marionette characters on-screen. Taking the first-person perspective, I was able to duke it out Jedi-style with my friend, who was playing on the station next to me. The saber was represented by a WiiMote in my hand, but in concert with the Mgestyk setup I found that I had a far greater degree of control over my motions on all axis, including range, pitch, and yaw. It also ignored all other movement behind me, which is critical in a crowded exhibition hall.

Set to retail at about the price of a high-end webcam, the Mgestyk could be a neat addition to a hardcore gamer’s arsenal. Check out the following YouTube videos. When I spoke to the guys representing the company at MIGS, they were really enthusiastic about the popularity of the videos online, and given how much fun I had with their setup I can see why. Oh, apparently it will also work in total darkness (though one would hope you would at least be playing with your TV on.)

I also got to check out the booth that Microsoft had set up, with a pretty interesting gaming rig. Featuring the acclaimed Far Cry 2, the setup added a pretty impressive tactile feedback system using gear they already have on the market.

First of all, they used a neat triple monitor setup that gave the sudden advantage of peripheral vision. While very helpful in multiplayer, there were some drawbacks. I had a lot of initial trouble getting used to the huge amount of new visual real-estate, and the game itself seemed to have issues figuring out where to draw 2D HUD elements like player names and menu options.

The other elements added were a set of desk fans that (were supposed to) give the player the impression of wind while running or moving quickly, and ambient lights that reacted to on-screen events. My favourite, however, was the 3rdSpace Gaming Vest, an impact generating piece of apparel by TN Games.

Using “Pneumatic Impact Cells”, the vest reacts to in-game events such as bullet impact and explosions, though only within it’s fairly limited scope of supported software. Trying out the vest was interesting. The feeling of bullet impact on my chest made me a little more aware of the gaming environment, as well as a little less risky when assaulting enemy fortifications. I’m not sure if this piece of hardware is necessarily worth the price just yet, but the addition of a soft of primal fear instilled by physical stimuli is hard to get elsewhere within gaming, and at the very least worth a try.

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Oct 18

Voice and Mind

Design, Gadgets, Games, Hardware, Tests, Toys, Uncategorized 2 Comments »

Real-time strategy games have historically had a difficult run trying to break into the console market.  Over the last couple of decades of popular home console use, there have been multiple RTS releases and ports, though they are almost always poorly recieved when compared to their PC counterparts.

Although there are multiple reasons for this struggle, the most prominent setback was and continues to be the control interface. While most games use controls for view and character movement, strategy games use the control interface to quickly select and deploy potentially dozens of units in rapid order. While the mouse is perfectly suited for this, console controllers lack in both the speed and precision department.

This brings me to the console-exclusive Tom Clancy’s EndWar. The up-and-coming release is a tactical strategy game that offers the player a deep voice-recognition system used to control multiple units. With the headset on, the player can bark orders such as “Unit 2 attack hostile 1″, or “Unit 4 secure Foxtrot”, and have your on-screen soldiers acknowledge your orders via the headset’s earpiece.

Although the voice commands are pre-made and compartmentialized by the Ubisoft developers, they are complex and specific enough to be able to do anything from having one unit defend another, to ordering your camera to follow a mobile helicopter unit. The fact that the voice commands were designed to recognize proper sentence structure makes the voice-command system feel even more natural.

Unlike other voice-activated software, EndWar requires very little voice training. In fact, during the demo’s setup phase it felt as if the program was training me, as opposed to me training it. The complexity and range of the recognition software is demonstrated by this video demo, where the game recognizes commands uttered by a pair of trained parrots.

——–

On the topic of unique control mechanisms, hardware manufacturer OCZ has a device on the market that has been dubbed the “Neural Impulse Actuator”, or NIA. What the NIA consists of is essentially a rubber headband with diamond-shaped sensors on it. This headband connects to box that is used to translate the headband’s readings into keyboard bindings, that are then fed to your compute via USB input. Using a combination of electro-encephalogram, electro-myogram, and electro-oculogram technologies, the NIA can be used to pass up to eight different input binds to your computer without having to actually touch another input device. It’s sensors measure facial muscle tension, ocular movement, alpha brain waves, and beta brain waves to literally read your mind and your physiological impulses, which are then used as control mechanisms.

With a fair amount of training, the NIA can be taught to translate various types of thought (aggressive, pain management, etc) into usable input. This means that you can have it translate a tensing of your jaw muscles as a jump command, or a sideways glance as a look command. Using the alpha wave sensors, you can have the NIA translate an aggressive thought such as swearing into an input, as well. The lowest price I have found this for is about $120, and the highest is about $300. In it’s current iteration, however, the software will only recognize keyboard input. This means that you will still have to use the mouse if you want to get much PC gaming done with it.

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Jul 09

Zune Gaming

Design, Gadgets, Hardware, Toys, Uncategorized, Video Games, Zune 7 Comments »

June 13th marked a tremendous day in Canadian portable music history - at least in my personal calendar. This was the day that the Microsoft Zune was officially released to the Canadian public. Unlike some of my Canuckian counterparts who ordered theirs early from online retailers, I was a good little consumer and waited for my local Future Shop to get them in. Once the release was confirmed, I used my lunch break on that fateful day and bought myself a spiffy black 80gb piece of glory. I spent the rest of my shift playing with the menus and agonizing over the lousy bloatware music and video that Microsoft lovingly shipped for me.

It’s been nearly a month, and I’m still in love with this thing (and I’m reasonably impressed with the PC-side software that runs it.) It’s usually with me in the car, and I’ve loaded up my music collection as well as such visual classics as Rambo IV and Tank Girl onto it. However, what intrigued me since I first starting reading about it was the software potential.

From what I gather, the Zune basically runs on a hacked version of Windows CE. Both a friend of mine and I have been exploring the possibilities of developing games and applications for it using our beloved C#/XNA, and have found communities for such a thing popping up already. There are a ton of resources for this, but here is one of my favourite dev communities. It’s off of ZuneBoards. Clicky!

From some screenshots I’ve seen of projects in development, it seems the Zune hardware is even capable of limited 3D support, which is exciting and overdue news for mobile platform developers. I’m pretty excited to dive in and get my hands dirty with this, and in short order.

Unfortunately, as things are right now there is no way to create a “release” of a game for the Zune since XNA3.0 is still in it’s community testing phase, or something like that. Instead, any games or other applications designed for the Zune have to be installed the Alpha way. That is, you have to use the Visual Studio Express 2008 compiler to deploy the game to a recognized device. Not hard, but a little more time consuming than using a stardard Setup executable.

Anyways, this is all I have on this for now. As time progresses and the Zune development community grows out of it’s infant stages, I will post more and reveal my own projects as they arrive. If anybody here has some Zune apps or software they would like me to reveal, just send an email or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to take a look.

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Jun 25

Relaxation Games

Design, Gadgets, Games, Tests, Uncategorized, Video Games 2 Comments »

Sit back on the couch.

Relax all of the muscles in your body. Start at your head, and slowly relax down to your feet.

Open your eyes and look at your screen. Observe at the serene underwater view in front of you, and listen to the monotonous tone of the respirator as you breath. You begin to feel a great calm as you watch the aquatic creatures before you as they swim around, oblivious to all of the troubles of the world.

Wii Remote resting comfortably in hand, you gently guide yourself around a tropical lagoon, petting dolphins and observing sea slugs about their daily business.

BANG!

Suddenly, an explosion! You hear a rocket roar past your head and into the wall beside you! Gunshots ring out to your left, and a police siren screams in alarm. People are shouting. Cars are screeching into eachother and the sound of metal tearing into metal takes over the room. Once calm and quiet, your blood is pumping as you react to the chaos.

This seems to be an increasingly common scenario in my house, and admittedly I’m usually the one responsible for the chaotic din that takes over our living room (most likely to my roommates’ dismay, though they haven’t expressed this yet.) Thus is the cost of having two TVs set up in the same room, I suppose, but the audio battle between GTA4 and Endless Ocean got me thinking. Not only did I consider how forgiving my roommates are, but I revisited the idea of the “Relaxation Game”; something I hadn’t really considered since I was at the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) back in November.

The concept of a relaxing game is a relative novelty, but an interesting one. Consider the fact that video games are generally regarded as leisurely activities, indulged in to relax after a long day at work. I understand that this is by no means the primary reason that people play video games, but it is a significant one and the focus of this type of game. Most games focus around action, adventure, or some other adrenaline-fueled activity. Potentially getting the user wound up and excitable may be fun, but is not always necessary or desired. If I have been concentrating on my work all day, I don’t always want to play a game that will force my undivided concentration or require considerable focus. Sometimes I just want to chill out, as the case may be. Enter the Relaxation Game.

A good name to throw out at this point would be That Game Company. Authoring games such as “fl0w” and “Cloud”, this developer is deeply familiar with the premise of an alternative gameplay experience. Currently in development is a game called “Flower”, which is reportedly designed to instill a feeling of bliss and comfort within it’s users. From what i saw at the MIGS keynote presented by lead developer Kellee Santiago, “Flower” is certainly well on it’s way to achieving that goal. What I found really exciting about the demo footage was how carefully the emotional gaming experience seemed to be crafted, and how organic the audience response was. Even from unplayable footage, a sense of purpose and direction was abundantly clear.

So, what makes a game relaxing? Much of this is relative, but there are a few key factors to consider. First: theme. Obviously shooting and car chases are out, leading to way to something like organic flight, or SCUBA diving as seen in Endless Ocean. Make sure the theme plays out as peacefully as possible, and you’re well on your way to a relaxing experience. Add this this proper ambiance. Soft, cool colours such as light blue and purple seem to be popular for this genre. Keep colour transition smooth to avoid visually shocking the user. Add in soothing and/or relaxing music, and you have the major elements that I’ve observed in a game designed to calm the mind and body.

Sound good? Hell, I’m relaxed just writing about this.

So, my gamer friends, I urge you to try out this subgenre of games. Pick up Endless Ocean for your Wii, or download fl0w from That Game Company. Even something as common as Cabella’s Hunting And Hilariously Indiscriminate Animal Slaughter can be relaxing, provided you focus less on the hunting and more on enjoying being in the virtual forest. I promise that you won’t be disappointed, and you may even be more willing to embrace experimental games as they progress.

Keep gaming.

~The Chiz

P.S. No, I’m not a filthy hippy. I enjoy wantonly shooting an elephant in the face at least as much as the next guy. Probably more.

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