Games have come a long way in the past ten years. As far as I can remember, I was playing a Sega Master System with its 8bit graphics, a controller consisting of a D-Pad and 2 buttons and it was all very basic simple interfaces but effective! Now a days we have these fancy new Xbox’s and PlayStation 3 HD graphics, all kinds of fancy menu interfaces, gameplay and wireless controllers with multiple buttons, in fact we don’t even need a controller now!
Basic wired controller.
So how did we get there? Well technology has advanced, to simply put it. We’ve gone from basic wired controllers, to wireless controllers, to motion sensitive controllers, to motion plus, to not even needing a controller at all (with the Xbox Kinect) were you are the controller yourself. So as you can see, this changed the way we see and play games altogether. Take the GameBoy for example, it was a fun addictive little handheld, but in 2004 Nintendo released its DS console with a touch screen, the way we play games was changed forever, you can even talk to some games for interaction and blow into a mic for some games to.
Touch Screen Dual Screen.
So since then, more and more handhelds are being produced such as mobile phones with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad etc, even the new PS Vita is touch screen, but that’s just Sony catching up. So as you can see game design has changed, because now they are producing so many games and applications that use the touch screen, so they are taking advantage of it. Nintendo was the first to introduce the new types of ways to interact with games. Their Wii console in 2006 revolutionised gaming forever. The controller consists of having a remote that is connected to a sensor bar where you can point it at the screen to interact with things within games. In 2010 Xbox released its connect console, basically a piece of hardware designed to eliminate the need for a controller, proving it can be done. In which these consoles and add-ons where designed really to get more people active all over the world rather than sitting down all the time.
Wireless controller.
These designs have been the inspiration for a lot of new games. Take Super Mario Galaxy for example that game almost single handily revolutionised gaming, but why? I remember watching a video (can’t remember where) but it all apparently started with the idea of Mario running around on spheres. In which provoked the idea of basing the game on the universe itself. Within the game you can run around on spheres in full 360 degrees and not fall off of them.
Maybe these explain things better about the game design:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/SmoboHash/162201
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3593/games_demystified_super_mario_.php
It introduced the idea of, spinning the controller and pointing the cursor at things, to active various elements within the game as well as having this game where you can literally run anywhere on these spheres (or planets) and almost not worrying about losing a life. I guess it put more freedom into games which made it more enjoyable as rules of physics within a game engine were basically thrown out the window, proving anything is possible!
Wii Nunchuck (left) & Remote (right) uses a sensor bar placed on your TV set connected to the console.
Really controllers have been designed in a way that they make everything more convenient, so in the old days you do something by moving the d-pad and selecting something, now you can just touch a screen or simply point the controller at the screen and select and drag stuff around. I should point out that back in the 80’s and 90’s etc they introduced all of these gaming machines in arcades that have things like seats for driving simulators and guns for shooting games, however these games are only one thing, in which I mean is you can only play that one game the device is designed for. You can still find these however now you have add-ons made for consoles which are similar but can be used on multiple game titles, thus making it more convenient and in which we can design games to support these new controllers specifically.
Typical machine found in arcades to support specific games.
3D technology has been affected in the way that we now have to think about how a game plays and pay more attention to it. This is because they way we play has changed in which game designers now are almost limitless to the ideas and possibilities that can exist in games. Therefore when creating a game you have to decide almost immediately what platform it is for so you can get an idea for how it will play and therefore get an idea for what assets will be needed for the game in its levels. Game engines such as UDK etc have been pushed probably almost to their limits of what they can achieve just because of new physics and interactive that now exists within games, which is making it more complex and challenging but more exciting and fun to play. Gaming has come a long way in a very short amount of time and its evolved quite a lot, but now we start to wonder how can we make it better?
Kinect... you're the controller!
Maybe it’s getting to a point where we don’t even need a console in the distant future and we can literally just think of a game. In a hundred years we’ll probably look back at the current present of gaming and think of it as a golden age if the 80’s already were’nt.
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