Seeing as it seems like even after extra credit's latest episode, a lot of people are still not convinced the Move/Kinect is the worth the plastic used to make them, let's try just another approach.
For all of you who want to give your creative muscles a little jog, write down a game concept that can be made for Move/Kinect that will actually appeal to the hardcore crowd. (God I that word so much) Pretend for a second that this is going to have a AAA budget, and that the execs will stay out of your way so you can do your job.
Let me start:
Gladiator Duel, Ver 2.0
This is one of the games you find in the Move bundle "Sports Champions". It's actually a tremendous amount of fun when you have two controllers to do the sword and shield properly. While a lot of fun, the game doesn't actually dig too deep into the possibilities, probably because it would incur a lot more resoruces to do so.
With a AAA budget though, this is entirely possible. So let's give it a go:
The game will still have your standard sword and shield. But in addition to that, you now also have two-hand swords, dual short swords, flails, dual short flails, polearms, claws, chain-dart, unarmed/guantlet, and just for the hell of it, three section staffs.
Each one of these you can get a fairly reasonable approximation by using the dual control scheme. Combos with shields in them will have the same inherent blocking mechanics, while weapon parry works on the basis of you applying a bit of force to the weapon to stop the strike path.
In addition to just weapons, you also get to pick armor. What will armor effect? well, we already see that you can do movement on the controllers with the buttons, so armor now will effect your movement rate. Too much armor? your character sidesteps a little slower, recovers a little slower, etc. We already know that the game can handle hit location detection, so just make the armor pieces protect specific areas by stating that you take less damage when hit in that area. Heck, we can even give the player the option to use their fists to PUNCH the other player if they want.
Now, add different characters who have more than just skins, and oh yeah, stop making them athletes. Hell, we can just take the cast of soulcalibur if we want. Generic samurai guy, generic knight guy, generic pirate guy, etc. Each guy has their intrinsic strength and weakness. one guy might be trained to move faster, recovery faster. one guy might dish out more damage per hit. one guy might dish out more damage with certain weapons, etc. And hell, if you really want, give each character archetype a special/signature move that can be invoked by pushing a button. (the big thumb button in the center of the move is not being used during play anyway, so that can be it.)
To tie it all together for multiplayer (yes, make it an online multiplayer that let's you play it on the PSN), open up DMCs where you can buy customized pieces of armor, clothes, or entire skins. (Heck, we're talking about ripping off Soulcalibur, migth as well go the whole way right?) Differences are all cosmetic, but allows you to customize your guy's look and feel.
Add in some proper match making algorithm. (ELO or TrueSkill anyone?)
Starting to sound like something that could be a lot of fun, right?
And the crazy thing is, nothing I'm talking about here is earth shattering different. It's just applying current game conventions to the model and adding lots of content and polish. Seriously, I'm surprised that we don't see anythin like it already.
For all of you who want to give your creative muscles a little jog, write down a game concept that can be made for Move/Kinect that will actually appeal to the hardcore crowd. (God I that word so much) Pretend for a second that this is going to have a AAA budget, and that the execs will stay out of your way so you can do your job.
Let me start:
Gladiator Duel, Ver 2.0
This is one of the games you find in the Move bundle "Sports Champions". It's actually a tremendous amount of fun when you have two controllers to do the sword and shield properly. While a lot of fun, the game doesn't actually dig too deep into the possibilities, probably because it would incur a lot more resoruces to do so.
With a AAA budget though, this is entirely possible. So let's give it a go:
The game will still have your standard sword and shield. But in addition to that, you now also have two-hand swords, dual short swords, flails, dual short flails, polearms, claws, chain-dart, unarmed/guantlet, and just for the hell of it, three section staffs.
Each one of these you can get a fairly reasonable approximation by using the dual control scheme. Combos with shields in them will have the same inherent blocking mechanics, while weapon parry works on the basis of you applying a bit of force to the weapon to stop the strike path.
In addition to just weapons, you also get to pick armor. What will armor effect? well, we already see that you can do movement on the controllers with the buttons, so armor now will effect your movement rate. Too much armor? your character sidesteps a little slower, recovers a little slower, etc. We already know that the game can handle hit location detection, so just make the armor pieces protect specific areas by stating that you take less damage when hit in that area. Heck, we can even give the player the option to use their fists to PUNCH the other player if they want.
Now, add different characters who have more than just skins, and oh yeah, stop making them athletes. Hell, we can just take the cast of soulcalibur if we want. Generic samurai guy, generic knight guy, generic pirate guy, etc. Each guy has their intrinsic strength and weakness. one guy might be trained to move faster, recovery faster. one guy might dish out more damage per hit. one guy might dish out more damage with certain weapons, etc. And hell, if you really want, give each character archetype a special/signature move that can be invoked by pushing a button. (the big thumb button in the center of the move is not being used during play anyway, so that can be it.)
To tie it all together for multiplayer (yes, make it an online multiplayer that let's you play it on the PSN), open up DMCs where you can buy customized pieces of armor, clothes, or entire skins. (Heck, we're talking about ripping off Soulcalibur, migth as well go the whole way right?) Differences are all cosmetic, but allows you to customize your guy's look and feel.
Add in some proper match making algorithm. (ELO or TrueSkill anyone?)
Starting to sound like something that could be a lot of fun, right?
And the crazy thing is, nothing I'm talking about here is earth shattering different. It's just applying current game conventions to the model and adding lots of content and polish. Seriously, I'm surprised that we don't see anythin like it already.
