Having whinged a lot about movie tie-ins and sequels recently, I've spent the last few weeks digging about, looking for interesting new concepts that may well shape game design - or at least make an impression on it - over the next few years. Most of these concepts have been around for a while, just waiting for the right platform to turn them into mainstream games, some are already a part of the industry. I just wanted to bunch together some fascinating, fresh or evolving areas that might provide us with more compelling gameplay experiences than, well, pretty much anything in the Top Five this week. So here goes...
Augmented reality The overlay of computer graphics onto a real-world environment is hardly a new idea – run a Google search on the phrase and you'll find hundreds of research projects and practical applications for the technology. But only now are the videogame possibilities being realised. Eye Toy, of course, is the most high profile example and we're also seeing mobile phone games that use the camera function to provide simple AR experiences – Skeeter and Attack of the Killer Virus for example. It could be that the proposed camera add-on for Sony's PSP will be used in the same way. There are some interesting experimental projects on the go too, including BattleBoard 3D, an AR chess sim, inspired by the game Chewy and C3PO play in Star Wars, and this multiplayer train set.
Location-based gaming Several mobile developers are already offering variations on location-based gaming, either using GPS, or measuring the distance from the cellphone to the nearest mast to track each users' movements. The massively multiplayer title Bot Fighters, for example was launched in 2000 and has been running in territories like Ireland, Sweden and Russia ever since, encouraging users to rush around town centres engaging in Pokemon-style robot battles with passers-by. A more advanced sequel is now available. Interesting alternatives include detective adventure The Journey and cyberpunk epic Under Cover 2. Sony showed a prototype GPS add-on for the PSP at last year's E3 so it could be that the company has location-based gaming in mind.
Creative gaming Of course, games that have handed the creative reins over to players have lurked on the periphery of the industry for many years. Nintendo's Mario Paint series, The Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit on C64, the many games that come with level and/or map editors. Traditionally though, these options have been rather demanding, and are rarely a central focus of the gameplay. With the Nintendo DS and its touch screen technology, however, we should see a new era where creativity becomes an integral element of the experience. Yoshi's Touch and Go, for example, challenges you to draw clouds to provide safe platforms for Baby Mario to run across, while Namco's Pac-Pix gets you to draw your own Pac-Man and then control his movement by building walls in his path.
I also love the look of ElectroPlankton, a DS title that allows you to create weird audio/visual landscapes by manipulating ten musical aquatic lifeforms. UK developer Relentless created a similar, if less abstract, music toy with DJ Decks and FX two years ago. I was speaking to the company last month and they claimed that they would be revealing an innovative 'lifestyle game' concept at E3 this year - another music-based project using a totally original new peripheral. The traditional means of intertacting with videogames and the traditional design structure in which the game sets a series of clearly defined objectives for the gamer, are being challenged by these creative toys.
Elsewhere, there's the sophisticated movie-making mode in Sims 2, which allows players to create their own soap operas using characters and environments from the game. Already, 7000 movies have been posted to EA's Sims 2 website and Rooster Teeth, the machinima studio responsible for the classic Red vs Blue series has created its own Sims 2 drama, The Strangerhood. Later this year, Lionhead's The Movies, will feature a machinima movie-making component.
There's also been a spate of games recently that have encouraged users to communicate with each other through words and pictures in various amusing ways. Nintendo's PictoChat software – a sort of multimedia messaging service for DS owners – is the key example, utilising the console's touch screen interface to create a near real-time chat system. Similarly, at 3GSM this year, Orange showed off OrangeScribble, an application which lets two or more phone users share a strip of on-screen paper - everyone can draw and write on the same sheet in real-time, using a stylus or the keypad to guide a cursor, sort of like sending notes round the back of the classroom.
Another interesting example is Just Letters, a multiplayer flash game that presents you with a bunch of those magnetic letters that zany people have on their fridge doors. You can move them around to create words, but there are other users trying the same thing, so you're in constant conflict with fellow wordsmiths. Gameplay, such as it is, is entirely user-defined and usually revolves around two competing camps – those who want to form swear words, and those who want to stop them.
I'm not sure how these disparate strands could be worked into a mainstream game design, but then I'm not Shigeru Miyamoto.
Emotional gaming Japanese dating games have been exploring this area for years, but only since the Sims have social themes broken into mainstream games in the West. Now we're seeing the beginnings of an intriguing new genre with the likes of Sprung and Project Rub courting a wider audience through the use of relationship-based themes and friendly, inclusive interfaces. This combination of sex and simplicity reaches its zenith with forthcoming coin-op, The Act, a dating game that utilises a single control knob, like the ones used to control Pong. Functioning as a kind of interactive romantic comedy the game, which is set to be installed into pubs rather than arcades, is designed specifically to attract female gamers. We'll see..
Personalisation The advent of digital television has brought about a paradigm shift in viewing habits. Once the whole nation sat in front of the same four channels, now, the availability of thousands of channels plus systems like Tivo and Sky+ makes a unique viewing experience accessible to each consumer. Gaming is going the same way. Microsoft's J Allard made a massive deal of this in his GDC keynote speech, discussing how he'd like to see online communities of Xbox 360 gamers building their own content for games, and how it may be possible to buy new in-game items online using 'Micro Payments'. Of course there has been a vibrant modding community online for several years, but this has been mostly confined to PC games. Will the next generation consoles open up the possibilities of user-created levels, characters and stories to a wider audience? It'll be down to the developers to build editing modes into their games, of course. Meanwhile, we should also see more modification in the realm of MMORPGS – the likes of A Tale in the Desert and Second Life point the way.
On a more modest level we should see more abundant customisation options. Driving games Like GT4, Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition and Forza Motorsport offer a massive selection of modding options, while huge online communities have been built to create and trade household objects for The Sims. Fighting games and sports sims are also offering more exhaustive 'create a character' modes. The mantra is quickly becoming, 'ask not what the game can do for you, but what you can do for the game'…
Part two next monday!
