297: The Hands' Job

Chris Plante

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Nov 1, 2010
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The Hands' Job

Too many developers ignore the potential of what's sitting right front of us for the entire game. It's time to give hands the attention they deserve.

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Frybird

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Jan 7, 2008
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I like that Mirrors Edge has been mentioned so much in this particular subject.

I think many people who critisized the game for making it hard to predict jump distances etc. did not pay attention to the hands. There are a lot of subtle cues hidden in these seemingly random animations.
 

Fetzenfisch

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Sep 11, 2009
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I also liked the handsign orders in games like Brothers in Arms or Republic Commando. Its been only a few and nothing that special, but they already did a lot for the athmosphere of the game. (i see a possible comeback of a "powerglove" ^^ Imagine a team based shooter were everyone can hear your voicechat as if it was really said by your character, nonverbal communication would add a lot depth there).
 

GonzoGamer

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I don't really give it much thought (then again I don't play a ton of FPSs) but I have to say I am glad that we don't have to deal with the mitten-hands of last generation. I loved those gta cutscenes but when they started waving their hands around it was hilarious.
 

HentMas

The Loneliest Jedi
Apr 17, 2009
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I never really noticed, the only game i did was BIOSHOCK, and that was when the guy injected the plasmids, and had a hand up with bees fluttering around

never played "mirrors edge" so probably thats another game i should try

i find it interesting how something incredible obvious is so easily overlooked, but well, now that you are sitting there with your arms in the keyboard, how many of you actually pay attention to your arms??
 

Dastardly

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Apr 19, 2010
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Chris Plante said:
The Hands' Job

Too many developers ignore the potential of what's sitting right front of us for the entire game. It's time to give hands the attention they deserve.

Read Full Article
A classic example of good flavoring in a game: it's easy to completely overlook, but you miss it when it's not done well. Hands are really the only thing providing a sense of mass to your FPS characters...

Think back to early FPS games, when the gun was centered in the viewscreen. No one really thought much about it--it was to help you aim--but now it just looks and feels hideously unnatural. And then Doom came along, and suddenly your space marine had fists! Oh, man, I remember thinking that was a little bit awesome...

An FPS without adequately-represented hands makes you a ghost. A floating, disembodied rectangular HUD that emits various ammunition types. Our hands are probably our third most important means of interacting with the world, right behind eyes and ears. But it goes beyond that:

Eyes and ears are passive. We receive information through these two channels. Our hands work both ways. They provide tactile information, and can then use that information, reinforced by our eyes and ears (which also includes balance) to affect our world. The HUD and the sounds provide some immersion if done well, but that only immerses us in the output. Just the simple inclusion of functioning hands can help to immerse us in the input as well. Instead of just pushing information out at us, the game is now pulling us in. That's the real deal.

Great article.
 

WanderingFool

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Apr 9, 2009
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I would love to see more love for hands in FPS games. Cause, really, they are the only thing you will see in an FPS, unless the game includes curvature in the spine, allowing you to see your feet.

Loved the article.
 

beema

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Aug 19, 2009
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Excellent article (funny title :p ), and a very poignant yet often ignored or overlooked topic.
I too find that many hands in FPS games look terrible. Crappy texture, stiff movement or lack thereof entirely. Most of the time they look like paper mache or made out of hot dogs. They never move, never grip. They are static and unrealistic. Sometimes I'd almost prefer only seeing the gun, like in DOOM (although you saw his hand when reloading the shotgun).

Bioshock, Far Cry 2 and Mirrors Edge are all great examples or at least show how they can be done better.

Call of Duty, being the most dominant and popular FPS in modern times is a pretty bad offender. They dress up the hands a little differently depending on who you are playing but other than that, they are very static.

It's pretty sad that with all the extremely specific topics being covered at GDC, everyone gave you the stinkeye for asking about hands. Seems like a perfectly valid question/topic to me.
 

realslimshadowen

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Aug 28, 2010
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In general, I agree, with one point of contention...

But people can carry guns differently. Hold a pistol sideways.
But that would only work if you were playing a moron. Or a street thug, but I repeat myself. (Sights are on top for a reason, even if that reason isn't immediately apparent in an FPS with a crosshair HUD.)
 

megs1120

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Jul 27, 2009
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Killzone 2 is one of those rare games that I think put effort into your character's hands. Of course, they aren't as integral to the experience as they are in a game like Mirror's Edge, but the game seems designed from the bottom up to make those hands yours.

The first thing you'll notice when playing Killzone 2 is that your weapons don't snap right to where you want them, they're sluggish, they have weight, and an object at rest prefers to stay at rest. It pisses people off in a major way, but the intentional clunkiness of the controls means more missed shots, more firing for effect, more of a sense that these are powerful machines that you don't have complete control over.

Early on in the first combat level, you and a teammate need to get over an obstacle, so you literally lend each other a hand. What easily could have been done in third person is made more compelling because you look up and take your teammate's hand, with no change in perspective.

Because the post is getting a bit long, here's my last thought. Sixaxis, for the most part, sucks. It's inaccurate, oversold and underused. But when it comes time to plant a bomb, you pull it out of your pack, stick it on the wall and activate it by moving your controller along with the hands on the screen. Go half-way, the hands on screen go halfway, go back and they go back. They are your hands. It's a simple, imperfect little gimmick, but it's effective.

It's unlike any other hoorah, blow-em-up FPS I've ever played.
 

UNHchabo

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Dec 24, 2008
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For its time, I thought Half-Life did a good job of this; there were idle animations for every weapon, and you could see the hands flexing and unflexing even while holding longguns.

The snark's idle animation is a bit of hidden comedy in itself!
 

GeorgW

ALL GLORY TO ME!
Aug 27, 2010
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Wow, I never thought about the hands before. I'm afraid you've given me a new pet peeve!
 

Akiada

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Apr 7, 2010
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I have to agree whole-heartedly with this whole article. I've always been a fan of having more "personality" to one's hands and having the player's body be represented in the game. It gives a sense of weight and impact I suppose, it makes you feel like you're actually a character rather than a set of hovering gun-rest hands and a firearm.

How a character handles a weapon says a lot about them. It was a really nice touch in HL2 how if your crosshair hovered over an ally with a gun out Gordon would lower the weapon. Seems he learned quite a bit from Hazard training, heh.
 

The Random One

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I'm more worried about feet, particularly. Namely, how FPS heroes apparently don't have them and like to float in midair. It always makes me happy to look down and see my shoes (although in games like The Darkness the downside is that the player's maximum speed is 'overweight man jogging').
 

guise709

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Feb 2, 2010
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Yes Yes Yes. Playing through Far Cry 2 and I must admit the game is very immersive. Depending on the character you choose the hands are different. Health is low, you inject yourself with medicine. Lost? Your character pulls out a map and a gps device no menu navigating at all. When you swim you see your character actually use his hands for swimming. Far Cry 2 had many elements in it that has "great game" written on it too bad it had a few shortcomings. Even the menu looks like a journal and whenever you select something you flip through the pages. Hope more games does this. Hands for 2012!
 

Shoelip

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Jul 17, 2008
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Cool article. It's the small details that make a great game.

I'm reminded of Modern Warfare 2's odd relationship with body parts. You tended to pull them out of thin air. Sometimes your hands would be very interesting and important, other times they were nothing more than gun rests. But that game was a wealth of contradictions.

A another game that had interesting hands was Trespasser. It was also like, the first FPS ever to use physics based gameplay. Of course it was executed horrendously. The hands were actually only one hand. you interacted with the world entirely through your right hand as you left arm just sort of sat there rigidly immobile. Something like it could have been done a lot better though I'm sure.
 

JohnnyDelRay

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Jul 29, 2010
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Even modelling, animating and rendering hands seems to be quite hard to do right, from CG movies to games. But I agree it's something that can easily be overlooked, however is very important in FPS games. That epic moment in Cod4:MW, where you

jump onto the helicopter from the boat (didn't really need to spoiler that, I mean it's the 1st mission, just bein careful)
had me feeling really involved and adrenaline pumping as he scrambled a bit to not fall out the damn thing, until someone grabbed my hands. The ice pick climbing sections were pretty cool too. Yes, there were things that game did right, believe it or not.

Bioshock's hands are definitely the epitome of cool and reflective of the player. But my girlfriend mentioned something about it...she said "how come he's walking around like a zombie with both his hands up like that? Kinda weird, no?" At first I thought "Blasphemy! She speaks ill of Bioshock!" But when I tried to imagine it from a 3rd person perspective, i thought yeah, that would look kinda weird....

So maybe even *NOT* having hands, or having hands do more "natural" stuff as in 3rd person games could help as well.
 

lordswift

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Apr 16, 2009
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oh hell yes. Just finished playing farcry 2 (kept getting bored to much of a annoying trek to do things)
More animated hands and feet. i want legs. i.e mirrors edge, bulletstorm etc.
 

Jumplion

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Mar 10, 2008
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I think we should focus an equal number of resources on legs! Too often they are over looked and whenever I look down occasionally all I see is the floor and I feel like a floating head. And let me see my own body to, when you look down your legs don't take up your entire vision, your body is in there to!