Game Design Considerations for Alternate Controllers

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Game Design Considerations for Alternate
Controllers

• Greg LoPiccolo Ryan Lesser
• Harmonix Music Systems

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Who is Harmonix?

• Spun out of MIT Media Lab in 1995
• Focused on Interactive Music Innovation
• Our Mission to bring the experience of musical
  performance to non-musicians
• Led to video game development

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Why does Harmonix make games using alternate
controllers?

• By accident!
• Mandate to pursue music software ?
• Frequency/Amplitude required ?
• Focus on design innovation
• Led to . . .

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What is an alternate controller?

• Dance pad
• Eyetoy / camera
• Microphone
• Light gun
• Drum, Guitar, etc
• Steering wheel

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Why design games with alternate controllers?

• Underappreciated area of game design
• Controller has HUGE impact on
• Mechanics of player abilities and constraints
• Player role expectations
• Provides access to new game experiences

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Why design games with alternate controllers?

• Lowers barrier to entry more potential players
• Conventional controllers canbe intimidating
• Physical interactioncontributes to immersive
  experience

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Harmonix Alternate Controller Design

• Undertake two simple steps to figure out what
  game to make
• Dont pre-judge the process, but follow where it
  leads
• Most importantly

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Early prototyping and iterative refinement is
CRUCIAL

• Build
• Test
• Revise
• Repeat
• But that is a different talk . . .

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Designing for Alternate Controllers?Use These
Two Easy Steps!

• Step 1 Identify the desired player experience
• Step 2 Evaluate and/or develop the controller

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Step 1 Identify the desired player experience

• Prerequisite for an effective design
• Isnt this obvious?
• Yes, but implicit for most genres

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Step 1 Identify the desired player experience

• Alternate controllers imply fundamental shifts in
  player experience.
• Think about the experience, NOT the game mechanic

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Step 1 Identify the desired player experience

• Incomplete understanding of gameplay at beginning
  of process
• Clear understanding of experiential goals helps
  to evaluate ideas effectively
• Easier to identify and kill off dead ends
• Provides space for good ideas to flourish

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Step 2 Controller Evaluation/Development

• Needs to support play experience unachievable
  with a conventional controller
• Alternate controller provides unique data
• What opportunities does this data provide?
• What limitations does it present?

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Sony PS2 Dual Shock Controller Data
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Three Game Examples
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Example 1
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Step 1 What is the core Karaoke experience?

• Singing (drunk)
• Performing in front of an audience (drunk)
• Singing with other (drunk) people

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Step 2 Evaluate Controller

• Controller Microphone
• Everyone knows how to use one..which is a huge
  step forward!
• What data does it provide for us to evaluate?

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Step 2 Evaluate Controller
Good
Bad
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Step 2 Evaluate Controller

• Pitch
• Volume
• Lyrics (Phonemes)

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Karaoke Revolution Microphone Controller Data Raw
Input
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Step 2 Evaluate Controller

• Pitch detection unique, intuitive, technically
  feasible
• Volume detection ? too variable to be useful
• Phoneme detection?
• Computationally expensive
• Unforgiving
• Time-consuming to develop

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Shipping mechanic

• Player sings vocal part of familiar song
• Game grades on pitch accuracy
• No attempt at speech parsing

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Karaoke Revolution Microphone Controller Data
Derived Input
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Graphic
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Conclusion Karaoke Revolution

• Desired player experience Karaoke performance
• Usable controller data pitch analysis
• Outcome decent (4 sequels and counting)

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Example 2
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Step 1 What is the player experience?

• Tougher question than for Karaoke Revolution
• Possible player experience limitedby (as yet)
  unknown capabilitiesof controller
• On to step 2 --

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Step 2 Evaluate/develop controller

• Controller system body camera scene
  analysis code
• Scene analysis is highly configurable
• Um, what do we want to accomplish?
• Back to step 1!

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Step 2 Evaluate/develop controller

• What have other Eyetoy games done?

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Back to Step 1 what is the player experience?

• Mapping limb or body motions to character control
  could be immersive and intuitive
• Control unmediated by handheld controller
• Forward to Step 2!

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Step 2 Evaluate Controller

• What control data can we get from Eyetoy?
• 2D Face-tracking
• (After lots of work) 2D Hand-tracking
• Nothing from feet

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EyeToy AntiGrav Controller DataRaw Input
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Flash of Insight

• Head is firmly attached to body
• If body moves, head moves with it
• Head tracking body tracking!

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Where does that lead?

• Steering, jumping, ducking with head/body
• Er, something with hands

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Snowboarding?

• Its been done
• How about . . .

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Hoverboarding!
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EyeToy AntiGrav Controller DataDerived Input
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Control Set

• Left-Right Steering
• Jump/Duck
• Accelerate/Brake
• Target-smashing with hands
• Trick system gestures

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AntiGrav Conclusions

• Desired player experience intuitive physical
  control of hoverboarding character
• Useful controller data head hand positions,
  gestures
• Outcome mixedworks great in ideal setup,but
  fragile

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Example 3
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Step 1 Identify Desired Player Experience

• GH was not a Guitar Simulator, but rather a game
  about being a Rock and Roll Guitar Player

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Step 1 Identify Desired Player Experience

• The thrill of Live Rock n Roll guitar performance
  boils down to
• Reproducing guitar parts of songs
• On Stage Showmanship
• Firing up the crowd
• Soloing/self-expression

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Step 2 Develop Controller

• We got some input from the very start!
• Harmonix/RedOctane collaboration

Destroyed prototypes
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Step 2 Develop Controller- Controller Appearance

• The Guitar must look cool and not like a cheap
  toy
• Must be inviting to both young PS2 players and
  old, jaded rockers like us.

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Step 2 Develop Controller- Controller Size

• Big enough to feel like a real guitar
• Small enough to be stockable at retail

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Step 2 Develop Controller- Virtuoso play
support

• Fret buttons and Strum bar
• Smooth feel
• Short throw for speedy playing
• 5 buttons to allow multiple playing positions
• quiet
• sturdy

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Step 2 Develop Controller- Showboating Features

• Tilt sensor
• Whammy bar
• We didnt know how these would work when we
  requested them

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Step 2 Develop Controller- The Guitar Hero
Gibson SG!

• The final version of the Guitar Hero Controller

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Step 2 Develop Controller- Iterations

• Button feel
• Button switches
• Neck
• Paintjob
• Cord
• Tremolo bar (whammy)
• Tilt sensors

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Game-side design implications

• High level goals
• Support as many aspects of guitar wizardry as
  possible
• Varied toolkit to support range of songs and
  difficulties
• Obvious, intuitive play even for non-gamers

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Guitar Hero Controller Data
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Game-side design implicationsChords

• supports 3 power chord positions

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Game-side design implicationsSustain

• Sustained notes are big in rock guitar
• Co-existed well with chords

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Game-side design implications Vibrato/Whammy

• Simplest approach worked best, limited to ½ step
  detune
• Gives player a bit of expression

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Game-side design implicationsHammer-on /
Pull-offs

• What are they?
• Extremely guitar-y
• Very difficult to display graphically
• Very difficult to teach

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Game-side design implicationsImprovisation

• Conceptually awesome
• Experientially sucky too easy for inexperienced
  players to sound bad
• Hard to fit into game and visual design
• Ran out of time

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Star Power!

• Added some strategic depth
• Provided gameplay justification for guitar tilt
  and whammy

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Guitar Hero conclusions

• Desired player experience Rock and Roll stardom
• Usable controller datafrets/strum bar/whammy
  bar/tilt switch
• Outcome wow!

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Predictions

• Music games
• Eyetoy games
• Nintendo Revolution

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Conclusions

• Alternate controllers imply a fundamental shift
  in player experience. Embrace it!
• Identify desired player experience
• Develop a clear understanding of controller
  capabilities

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Contact Us

• Greg LoPiccologreg_at_harmonixmusic.com
• Ryan Lesser
• ryan_at_harmonixmusic.com