Interaction and Interface Design

I liked many if the ideas from the Kid’s Team meeting including the story of trying to become a big band, the dodging or catching of things the audience throws at the player, changing the player’s look, Guitar Smashing and the Head Cutting contest.

Most of these ideas can be easily incorporated into an EyeToy game. But, it does leave some technical questions. Should the player in the game be represented by his/her video image or by an avatar? If the video image is used, the main image on the screen would probably be a static shot (no camera movement). It would look like the audience was behind the player, unless the player physically places the camera to shoot him/her from behind (problems might occur if the camera has the monitor in the frame).

If the player is represented by an avatar, then options like EyeToy Cameo can be used. EyeToy Cameo allows the player to create an avatar which looks like himself/herself. But, the process looks a little boring and technical (one of the steps is putting plot points around an image of the players face). Other avatars should be available for players who don’t want to go through the EyeToy Cameo process.

Having the player represented as an avatar would free up the game visually and allow for some camera movement. The avatar could face the audience, which would look better. But, what if there was a little of both the avatar representation and the video image? Have the player be the avatar he could control by dodging and have a faded video image to hit the hot spots. I think that interface was used in the game EyeToy MonkeyMania (not available in the US).

I think the problem is how the player plays the instruments. Moving hands over hot spots at the right moment can work, but we have to be careful to place the hot spots where they wouldn’t be activated while the player is dodging stuff thrown at him/her.

This is going to be fun.

Filed by Larry W at 9:51 pm under Blog Post