Rare has only taken advantage of "10 to 15 per cent" of Kinect's technical potential so far - and the studio is going great guns to fully explore the "virtually limitless" possibilities afforded by the device.
That was the message from Rare incubation software director Nick Burton tonight at London's Institute for Contemporary Arts.
Still clearly beaming from the UK firm's BAFTA victory for Kinect Sports, Burton explained that Rare had long been interested in the possibilities of motion control - including experiments with the Xbox 360 Vision camera as far back as 2005.
Burton explained: "Kinect Sports was the first game I've made that my mum has played. She could watch me playing it and instinctively learn the controls just from what I was doing. For core gamers like me, the joypad has evolved, it's been honed. But to others it's intimidating."
He revealed that Rare had to overcome the problem of different players' natural movement, especially whilst sprinting - and avoid forcing its customers to move in pre-designated ways in order to win in-game. Some players crouched when running, he said, whilst others stood tall with a wider width between their legs.
In an engaging, enthused talk, Burton gave the audience of games design students and industry figures a "behind the curtain" view of Kinect Sports, showing off how it took advantage of the peripheral's depth sensor to nail players' movement.
Meanwhile, he showed how Kinect's ability to read 20 points on the body allowed for the game to "pick up on the subtleties, like twisting your wrist or the perfect release point during bowling", whilst still allowing those with a less studied understanding of gaming techniques to record pleasing performances.
Burton recollected that Kinect Sports' Football (soccer) mini-game was one of the hardest to get right for Rare. The studio didn't know how to represent running at first, and tried various approaches.
Discarded ideas included getting players to jog on the spot continually - which "left everyone in the studio knackered" - and to give avatars the natural state of sprinting, with the option to stop via a 'trapping' motion and pick a direction by turning. However, combined with shooting, passing and tackling, this was deemed to be "a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head".
However, it was the future of the device that really got Burton buzzing. He said that Kinect's "layers" of 3D infra-red depth reading, ability to track body points and voice recognition meant the possibilities for future software were "virtually limitless". Rare's next Kinect project would take advantage of more of the device's features, he suggested, including online connectivity.
Burton said Rare were avid fans of the so-called Kinect hacks doing the rounds, and had tested out many of the ideas seen on YouTube internally.
He was joined on stage by Microsoft-man-turned-Rare-studio-head Scott Henson, who echoed Burton's opinion - stating that Kinect was a "blank canvas" whose true possibilities were still unknown.
Picking ideas out of the air, Henson said he could see a day where Kinect's ability to read player's identity - and automatically sign them into Xbox Live - could revolutionise the living room with instant, bespoke entertainment.
"Now we've got 'Kinect, pause', which is great," he said - referring to the device's voice recognition during movie playback. "But imagine sitting in your living room and saying: 'Kinect, entertain me.' That's where we're going."
When asked by an audience member if he could see a core game like Halo working with Kinect, Burton queried whether Halo fans would want a traditional "run and gun" experience with motion control - but suggested that a Halo game created for the device itself could work.
On the subject of latency - and how restrictive it could be to Kinect's potential - Burton said that there was less lag between a player's movement and Kinect than there was from a button press on a traditional pad.
Rare took the wraps off the undeniably fun, polished Kinect Sports at E3 last summer. All eyes now turn to this year's event in June.
Comments
21 comments so far...
Barca Azul on 30 Mar '11 said:
Do people really want Halo kinect though?
I know I wouldn't.
Whilst some hacks have been interesting, I'm still not convinced, like the Wii or move that they will progress far past shovelware.
Desert Fox on 30 Mar '11 said:
Stupid Rare. Make a new Perfect Dark, or Banjo Kazooie, or Conker. Something that will go towards reclaiming your former glory!
CammersJDL on 30 Mar '11 said:
Make Conker's Bad Fur Day 2 you Kinect ass sucking bastards!
360_Fan on 31 Mar '11 said:
Lets have some fun with this one. Every time someone says something along the lines of M$ employee talking up M$ products we have to take a shot.
roughtext on 31 Mar '11 said:
Amen sister.
How about a new Blastcorps while you're at it? We've all been here before I know but why on earth would I want to play Halo without some sort of controller? Dancing and fitness games I get, but anything else... the only movement I want while gaming is thumb-based. As for something like Forza for kinect, M$ can make it look as cute as they like with an avatar grinning from a cartoon car but holding your hands out on some imaginary steering wheel for hours on end going through a championship is just madness.
Rare has fallen, big time.
Ali_ on 31 Mar '11 said:
Seems like a pointless statement. Given that MS removed the Kinect's original on board CPU due to cost reasons, it now relies on the 360s CPU instead.
altitude2k on 31 Mar '11 said:
People clearly don't understand the difference between "capabilities" and "power".
TOKEN on 31 Mar '11 said:
kinects gonna grow a cape and fly.
alph3 on 31 Mar '11 said:
I look forward to seeing what they can do with it then (that's not some sports crap!) but.......
I've had one in the house since Christmas. It was played for a couple of days, but then left to gather dust on the shelf in front of my telly alongside the Wii sensor bar. The PSEye gets more use as I can play KZ3 etc. on it. The Kinect had lain dormant until recently when the missus decided she would use Dance Central as part of her fitness routine, and that is as much use as it gets. Not even my 10 year old is interested. He'd much prefare Fifa 11 on the PS3, with a control pad.
Release something interesting and we'll see about booting it up again!
And am I the first to call bulls**t on that particular sentence?!
Megatrons_Fury on 31 Mar '11 said:
Having RARE comment on anything is like listening to PETER MOLYNEUX......... POINTLESS!!!
RARE are the perfect example of a one hit wonder, except not a game but a platform.... The N64.
Everyhting else from then on has been like looking at a shadow of something better, they just lost that 'IT' factor maybe becuase in the N64 days they worked so closely with Nintendo that some of that magic rubbed off on them.
Thank you so much for Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie and Conker and Goldeneye, blastcorps, jet force gemini and perfect dark but that was what we like to call the 90's.......
Check your calendar the year is 2011 and your thoughts and opinions are quite frankly not wanted, sort your own house out first before you try to change the opinions of others.
Also KINECT is an awfull yet somehow popular gimmick and i heard that this year SEGA are gonna make their big 32X and MEGA-CD push, should be awesome!!!!
altitude2k on 31 Mar '11 said:
Technically that statement is 100% correct. Unless God reduced the speed of light since then...
Black Mantis on 31 Mar '11 said:
It's a Kinect article though, standard protocol dictates bashing commences.
Stands to reason they've only scratched the surface, given that Kinect Sports is a launch title.
altitude2k on 31 Mar '11 said:
It's cool to hate. Apparently.
TykerD3 on 31 Mar '11 said:
Kinect is potentially great. Please stop hating it people. Mine is gathering dust, but i got it because this time next year there will be great games and great uses for kinect. Its just a waiting game....
altitude2k on 31 Mar '11 said:
Mine gathers dust because it's not in a box. Funny, that.
coolpro on 31 Mar '11 said:
The other 90% will however require buttons!
Black Mantis on 31 Mar '11 said:
Picnic12 on 31 Mar '11 said:
I think that people are a little harsh on Rare. The Beatles had about 7 or 8 years of hit albums. Apart from their time as Ultimate- Play the game, I was first greatly aware of Rare with Donkey Kong Country and then they had 7 or 8 more years with Nintendo.
They started off on the Xbox with a game that could have been released on a Nintendo console, Grabbed by the ghoulies which I quite liked although it had rather unchangeable play. I didn't like the war-oriented theme of Conker: Live and reloaded but that was how to appeal to the Xbox audience.
I liked Perfect Dark Zero - it was a good launch showcase for the Xbox360 and HD TV graphics, in a shiny way. It clearly divides opinions but I see it as a straight forward arcade style game (with customary dodgy story) whereas some other people wanted more depth. People looking for a similar type of game might like Quantum of Solace.
To be honest, I haven't played much of theirs since. I'd like them to come up with a rather random continuous adventure where one minute you are going through a haunted mansion like Resident Evil and the next you are riding down some river rapids like Uncharted or Kinect Adventures.
EvilDog77 on 1 Apr '11 said:
"Rare: We've only used 10% of Kinect's technical capabilities"
Microsoft: We've only acquired 10% of Rare's developer capabilities.
dm_1782 on 1 Apr '11 said:
Rare when will you realise that your place is by Nintendo's side I havent heard of one game that has really shined since they left. Ok well maybe Viva Pinata but even with that I really feel had that been on the Wii or 3DS it would've sold alot more better. C'mon RARE: Killer Instinct, Jet Force Gemini, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Conkers Bad Fur Day, Starfox Adventures (which in my opinion was really good and much better than STarfox Assault), Donkey Kong, Banjo and Kazooie, BlastCorps. Am I the only one who think theyre out of place with Microsoft??
armbar on 1 Apr '11 said:
Um, is that a way of saying it's only 10% as accurate as it should be?
(Only joking lol)
However, I always wondered how an fps game would work with Kinect? With Move you presumably just point the controller at the screen. How would this work with Kinect? Also, wouldn't the slightly lower level of accuracy be an issue with precision games - e.g. sniping as opposed to windmilling one's arms?
I'm curious. I can imagine it would be great for Tekken games but also pretty knackering...