My "Revolution"-ary Opinion
As Chris Slate posted on his blog, I am impressed that Nintendo had the balls to pull off such a radical change in its next controller. I’m still getting my mind around the whole thing, but I do feel a bit excited about the potential. Speaking as a gamer first, I can imagine a bunch of cool game scenarios that the controller could be used for… and I bet (sadly) that those scenarios are ones that only Nintendo would end up creating. My only concern is going to be how much fun swinging around a controller will be eight to ten hours into a game. At that point, would I be happier if I could just do the same sorts of actions with a simple combination of buttons? Right now, I’m not sure yet, but I’m inclined to believe that some sort of boredom/fatigue is going to set in.
As a game developer, I’m truly scared of the controller. Typically, innovation is fine if you don’t force it upon people. As long as the core mechanics of a console are similar to past ones (and you build an additional layer of innovative features upon that), then the developer has free choice to add support for those features when they feel comfortable or when it truly works with the particular type of game that they are creating. Take the DS, for example. Sure, it introduces dual-screens and touch-based technology, but it does it on top of a standard handheld design with a familiar number of buttons. Technically, I could build a fighting game for that system that just utilized the enhanced processing power and the additional buttons… I don’t need to necessarily throw in an elaborate system of touch-based elements, etc. to make my game work well on the system. However, in the case of the Revolution, I am now forced (due to the extremely unique nature of the controller) to create completely different interface systems and gameplay mechanics than the ones I have in my PS3 or X360 versions of the game. This is mainly due to the lack of buttons available to me. If I don’t take advantage of the gyroscopic features, then I only really have around four main buttons to work with and one analog stick. Hmmm…. That means that I probably will have to radically change my multi-SKU game in order to cater to the Revolution’s controller. I don’t have a basic controller setup to fall back on. For most developers, that is going to be a hard sell, especially with Sony and Microsoft going more traditional routes.
Some of my thoughts and opinions may change on this topic over the next few days, so I might add to this post later on. Until then, I’ll just keep reading up on the controller and try to figure out if there is any possible way that I can translate my current game’s control scheme to it. I’m just not sure it’s possible without cutting back on a lot of stuff. Oh, well. I might not even do a Revolution (or whatever it is going to be called) version anyway. We’ll see.
UPDATE: It seems the current news is that Nintendo will also be releasing a more traditional (but optional) controller for the console. Wow, that is even scarier because it would seem to reveal that even Nintendo is not completely sure in how well the "remote control"-er will fair in the marketplace. Yikes!
On a related note, it seems that Nintendo always tries to innovate with its controllers each generation, but that innovation generally comes with a price.
N64
Innovation: Introduced analog stick to modern “packed-in” controllers
Limitation: Player couldn’t access all the buttons on the controller very easily
Gamecube
Innovation: Introduced completely wireless controller for a modern game console
Limitation: No rumble and lack of button resulted in game ports that lacked some features/move sets
Revolution
Innovation: Introduced gyroscopic/motion-tracking feature
Limitation: Currently, a lack of standardized buttons and layout, but still remains to be seen
As a game developer, I’m truly scared of the controller. Typically, innovation is fine if you don’t force it upon people. As long as the core mechanics of a console are similar to past ones (and you build an additional layer of innovative features upon that), then the developer has free choice to add support for those features when they feel comfortable or when it truly works with the particular type of game that they are creating. Take the DS, for example. Sure, it introduces dual-screens and touch-based technology, but it does it on top of a standard handheld design with a familiar number of buttons. Technically, I could build a fighting game for that system that just utilized the enhanced processing power and the additional buttons… I don’t need to necessarily throw in an elaborate system of touch-based elements, etc. to make my game work well on the system. However, in the case of the Revolution, I am now forced (due to the extremely unique nature of the controller) to create completely different interface systems and gameplay mechanics than the ones I have in my PS3 or X360 versions of the game. This is mainly due to the lack of buttons available to me. If I don’t take advantage of the gyroscopic features, then I only really have around four main buttons to work with and one analog stick. Hmmm…. That means that I probably will have to radically change my multi-SKU game in order to cater to the Revolution’s controller. I don’t have a basic controller setup to fall back on. For most developers, that is going to be a hard sell, especially with Sony and Microsoft going more traditional routes.
Some of my thoughts and opinions may change on this topic over the next few days, so I might add to this post later on. Until then, I’ll just keep reading up on the controller and try to figure out if there is any possible way that I can translate my current game’s control scheme to it. I’m just not sure it’s possible without cutting back on a lot of stuff. Oh, well. I might not even do a Revolution (or whatever it is going to be called) version anyway. We’ll see.
UPDATE: It seems the current news is that Nintendo will also be releasing a more traditional (but optional) controller for the console. Wow, that is even scarier because it would seem to reveal that even Nintendo is not completely sure in how well the "remote control"-er will fair in the marketplace. Yikes!
On a related note, it seems that Nintendo always tries to innovate with its controllers each generation, but that innovation generally comes with a price.
Innovation: Introduced analog stick to modern “packed-in” controllers
Limitation: Player couldn’t access all the buttons on the controller very easily
Innovation: Introduced completely wireless controller for a modern game console
Limitation: No rumble and lack of button resulted in game ports that lacked some features/move sets
Innovation: Introduced gyroscopic/motion-tracking feature
Limitation: Currently, a lack of standardized buttons and layout, but still remains to be seen
posted by Frosty @ 10:47 AM
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