Wiimote tutorial best practices: “Zack & Wiki”

Exemplary Work, Games, Wii,
7/20/07

One of the things that’s apparent in this first generation of Wii titles is that many developers have underestimated how much attention needs to be given to instructing the user in how to hold and move the controller.  Static icons don’t cut it anymore; you’ve got to have animation, and even then it takes some finesse, as simply playing a loop of the controller being waved around can still be confusing if the loop point itself unintentionally conveys some kind of gesture.

The best in-game controller tutorials I’ve seen to date are in the upcoming title Zack & Wiki.  They actually show a little 3D animated guy (upper body only) holding the remote, along with text prompts.  Seems like overkill at first, but it’s actually great because you not only pick up on controller movement, you also get posture and timing.  When necessary, they can also switch to a first person view of the figure, or even a “disembodied hand” view to aid with object manipulation.  Check out some videos of the interface in action, the game does look pretty fun.

I wonder, though, you think they’ll let you customize the guy’s skin color? I’m assuming he’s not a character in the game but is supposed to represent some kind of abstracted ideal human, which opens up a whole set of issues… many of which Anne Friedberg and I also ran into when picking silhouettes for The Virtual Window Interactive (and which we tried to skirt by letting users create their own).  Gestural interfaces are increasingly going to require representation of the human form to explain, so whose form do we represent?  Do we need an interactive 3D update to the 1974 AIGA/DOT symbol system?

 

Image jam no. 1

Animation, Exemplary Work,
7/17/07

Scratching the surface. What else belongs here? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

 

 

LAFlashapaloozastock 2, the revenge

Events, Flash, LA Flash, Miscellaneous,
7/16/07

I spent Saturday in Venice at LAFlashapaloozastock 2, a combination seminar/schmoozefest/job fair put on by the wonderful folks at LA Flash.  If you’re in the LA area, have any interest in Flash and haven’t hooked up with this group yet, you’re missing out on a great community.

My introduction to LA Flash came last year, when I managed to snag a presenter slot at JobStock ‘06, a networking event where local Flash talent did three-minute presentations of their work alongside presentations from studios seeking flashers. I was immediately struck by the warmth of the community and especially its openness to people with a wide range of skill sets.  Flash by nature has an extremely diverse user base in terms of expertise, and it’s a great to see a community that does such a good job catering to newbies as well as to more experienced folks.

The highlights of the day for me were presentations by Sam Rivello on building a custom blitting engine in Flash, and a talk by Aaron Simpson of Cold Hard Flash on the history of Flash character animation, including his Flash Animation 10, a survey of the most influential online Flash shorts and a welcome bit of cultural perspective.

At the end of the presentations they raffled off a Wii, an Apple TV, and a bunch of other good stuff…

...and the tacos were delicious!

[ image from ccharlton on flickr ]

 

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