Sony to have 1:1 motion-tracking sword game by Xmas
A representative for Sony Computer Entertainment’s London Studios was in attendance at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival yesterday to talk about EyeToy. DarkZero brings you the details.
Sandy Spangler, one of the lead designers on the EyeToy: Play series of games at SCEE London, took to the stage to talk about the history of Sony’s camera peripheral. The first game that fully utilised the camera was EyeToy: Play which was released in 2003, and, according to Sony, was the first ever game without the need for a controller (or remote as they specifically pointed out.)
It seems people loved the idea of motion-based gaming (another jab at the Wii there?) as the varied mini-games in EyeToy: Play went onto spark a hugely successful brand that has resulted in over 10.5 million cameras making their way into PS2-owners homes.
Spangler explained that EyeToy was successful because it was easy to pick-up-and-play and was a great game for kids, families and parties. In fact, it was so successful that it created a whole new genre: Physical and Social Gaming. (Do we sense a little bitterness at the success of the Wii?)
Spangler explained that early EyeToy games worked by recording when pixels change colour in the camera’s field of vision, and viewing this colour-change as motion. This meant that the games could not track specific body parts or gestures, only sense where motion was happening onscreen. (This was why you had the irritation of having to wave your hand vigorously over any icon in the EyeToy menu to get the game to recognise your intentions.)
She went on to explain that Research & Development departments at SCEE London had created a way for the existing EyeToy technology to be able to keep track of specific colours. This lead to the announcement of two new EyeToy: Play games, to be released by Christmas this year. These were named Hero and Pom-Pom Party.
Hero was undoubtedly the more interesting of the two, being the first story-driven EyeToy game. (That means the other eighteen EyeToy games were just gimmicky mini-game collections then?) This title is controlled by means of a fluorescent-green foam toy sword. If you felt silly with a Wiimote in your hand, you’re gonna love this.
As the game can track where the sword is at all times, this allows for more complex gameplay. The first thing to note is that EyeToy Play: Hero is played from a first-person perspective, so the player’s image is not displayed onscreen like most other EyeToy games. What is seen onscreen is a glowing green representation of the sword that the player holds, and as the game is camera-based it follows the player’s movements to an exact 1:1 ratio.
The game is split into four zones which are made up of story-related mini-game style sections that each features a different take on motion-based swordplay. Each zone culminates in a boss battle, which once beaten, will see your sword gain additional powers.
One interesting example of these powers was your sword becoming a fiery beacon of sorts that needs to be used to guide the player through dark passageways. The sword needs to be hidden behind the players back to cover the light when monsters are passing. This is a great example of Sony playing to the strengths of their hardware, and producing gameplay that could not be done with a Wiimote.
Other gameplay sections we witnessed included the outset of the game where the Hero is bombarded with fruit by local ruffians and must use the sword to block. To add some extra difficulties to the mix there are also chickens that must be avoided, or at the risk of losing points they can be whacked for much amusement.
We also saw the first boss battle against the ‘Black Knight’. The colour-tracking means that the sword doesn’t have to be in motion for it to be sensed by the game, this allows the player to block attacks by holding the sword in the correct position. Attacks can also be parried by slashing at the opponent’s sword, and the Knight’s most powerful attack can be ducked.
The final level on show was one from the last section of the game, which saw the player-character riding on the back of a dragon and fighting off attacking griffons. By this stage the sword had been bestowed with some form of wind power, and tornados that pass by can be absorbed by your weapon and flung back at your enemies. The microphone is also put to use here as you can order your dragon to breathe flame by simply shouting “FIRE!”
From what we’ve seen so far, the ideas present in this title seem far better designed than previous EyeToy games and the prospect of a properly accurate sword-fighting game certainly appeals.
Sadly, the EyeToy technology certainly has its limitations when compared to the Wii’s upcoming MotionPlus peripheral. Although the motion-sensing has 1:1 accuracy, it’s only in the two dimensions onscreen, rather than the three dimensions that the Wii Remote can manage. The EyeToy also cannot detect more subtle movements such as the twisting of the player’s wrist. The EyeToy still has difficulty distinguishing colours accurately in anything but the brightest of lighting conditions.
Spangler assured us that the sporadic colour-recognition and horrendous loading times that we viewed would be resolved by the time of the games release.
24 comments ↓
Cruiz Dwyer
August 13th, 2008
Wow, this is actually pretty neat for a ps2 title.
Hopefully this is a test run for a full-fledged, or downloadable title for ps3.
John Fredericks
August 14th, 2008
I sense that this technology will be used in the upcoming Sonic Meets the Dark Knight…
chakan
August 14th, 2008
Why isn’t this for the PS3 Eye?
Exergame Lab
August 14th, 2008
I hope EyeToy Hero and Pom-Pom Party make their way across the pond to North America. I really think that EyeToy Kinetic is still one of the best games to get people moving. Although there are limitations to game play and the camera set-up and lighting needs to be just right, it’s still a great game.
mkf
August 14th, 2008
Is this ripoff of Camspace?
http://www.camspace.com/
Seth
August 14th, 2008
I think a lot of people seem to be disappointed that this game is for PS2 rather than PS3, it could be because of the larger install-base of PS2, but I really think Sony have underestimated the potential popularity of a game like this.
They haven’t hyped this game up at all.. Even the press conference that this news story was written about was hardly advertised, and there were barely 20 people in attendance…
Steve
August 14th, 2008
I think its funny how more people care about how the Wii doesn’t have a game like this than people actually care the PS2 IS getting a game like this.
This is exactly the kind of game we will see on the Wii in 2 years time…
Wolf26pack
August 14th, 2008
This sounds a bit Confusing. I believe this game is for the PS2 not the PS3 as the pictures show a PS2 box and they mention Eyetoy not the PS Eye. The confusing part is the mention of the Microphone as that is a part of the PS Eye for PS3 but not part of Eyetoy for PS2. Perhaps they meant that you can use a USB Headset with it. I’m about 90% sure though that this game is for PS2 NOT PS3.
Seth
August 14th, 2008
The game is for PS2. The PS2 EyeToy does have a microphone, but it’s tiny, hence the need to shout at the game.
The official EyeToy website shows where the microphone is on the PS2 EyeToy.
http://www.eyetoy.com/index.asp?pageID=20&itemChosen=1
This aspect of the EyeToy’s design has been much underused by developers.
Alasdair
August 14th, 2008
Chance of these games selling more than a million units apiece? 0.
They should be happy if they reach 100,000.
Seth
August 14th, 2008
Well, as far as I know, no EyeToy games beyond the first one has sold more than a million copies.
And seeing as Sony don’t seem to have allocated this game a marketing budget…
Still, I bet this game will be undersold and underappreciated. You heard it here first folks!
Mr G
August 14th, 2008
What you have to remember is that the PS2 has a userbase of something like 120 million and it’s growing every month. You could say that the PS2 and Wii are virtually on par with each other technology wise (remember that the Wii is a suped up GameCube). If Nintendo can knock out an old console and make money from it, so can Sony. You’ll probably now see a load of games released, maybe they’ll work on the PS3. If it’s a success on the PS2, they’ll probably be a PS3 version at some point.
Manuel
August 14th, 2008
And the president of sony had said that the wii is not competition, is only “gimmick”, give me a break, so what is this?…. cough.. copycats…. cough…., and they let go Harrison because he defended and insist that this type of games are the future for sony, come on, at least have some dignitiy and dont say anything about the wii being “gimmick” and “no competition”
Seth
August 14th, 2008
It appears that Sony may be using a ‘two-pronged’ approach. The PS3 is competing against the 360, and the PS2 is competing against the Wii.
Whilst I think it’s unfair to call Sony ‘copycats’ for making this game (remember the EyeToy was released a whole three years before the Wii), the question is why it’s taken Sony so long to make such good use of the EyeToy hardware. Would this game ever have been created if Nintendo hadn’t released the Wii?
Foolish
August 14th, 2008
This game is for the PS3 and is on the PS Eye. These were announced at the Sony Gamer day Uk by David Revees.
Foolish
August 14th, 2008
Nevermind, I was wrong. Here is the site to support your argument. http://uk.playstation.com/games-media/games/detail/item103380/EyeToy%C2%AE-Play%3A-Hero/
Seth
August 14th, 2008
Thanks for not living up to your name Foolish. You managed to correct your mistake within 5 minutes. That’s better than most websites, companies and individuals manage!
PasserBy
August 14th, 2008
Finally, finally a game that can handle better sword movement…
Now, with an illuminated glove, we can get some nice starwars games back.hehehe
Scott
August 14th, 2008
Why did it take so long for Sony to release a game like this? Its worse that its coming out for the PS2 since I don’t got one anymore. I really hope its fully BC support for the PS Eye/PS3. These are the type of games they need to start pushing out with the PS Eye, I’d actually want to buy one of them.
Seth
August 14th, 2008
Sadly it’s been confirmed that the Playstation Eye is not compatible with EyeToy games.
Johnny
August 16th, 2009
This is really weird i just got this game yesterday for 25 bucks(cheap), here in Australia (the pom pom game and this has been out for ages).
And was just looking to find some reviews. Now i know why i can’t find any. Anyway here is my take. The box has a 10 year old waving around a nerf sword so i felt slightly awkward taking it to the checkout. The sword is about 45 cm long and is brightish green, at first with normal lighting it was hard to get a reading, so i got a bedside lamp, and positioned it next to the camera and holy F*** it works. It swooshes like a lightsaber with trail behind which is about a few frames behind what you are doing, similar to motion plus but more accurate in a way and less in others. The game so far is just minigames swatting fruit then bandits. At first it was pretty poor just hit the fruit and avoid the chickens. Then you run along a pre arranged route swatting bad guys and it was getting more interesting, this was very much like the sword event in Sports Resort. Anyway i have just started playing, and for the price has been well worth it.
Johnny
August 16th, 2009
I just realized i am 1 year too late
Seth
August 16th, 2009
You’re never too late for fun, Johnny.
Its interesting to see though. that this game pretty much provided the basis for the Playstation Motion Controller.
Johnny
August 16th, 2009
Yeah thats what inspired me to buy it, to get a feel for how this new motion controller will work. Even though it had no idea where the sword was in 3d space it felt ok slashing away. But with a bit more work and a higher definition camera, it could track size and shape and you could interact a bit more closely with your enemies. I honestly dont see much future for this concept alone. Gameplay needs more interaction. This is what Nintendo have done right and even more so with motionplus. And Natal seems to put Your avatar on screen not a disembodied sword or football etc so it may have the right concept too.