Task 9

I've had a very creative day today. From waking up, doing some frantic sketches for Art class this morning, to life drawing which didn't go too badly, then about 5 hours of Flash work, another hour of general drawing artwork, which I'll continue into the early hours! Hurrah! Creativity is fun!

What's missing from this list? 3D work, that's what. I'm going to have to bring Max into my day to day artwork extravaganza in order to improve my skills. Must... Improve... Learn texturing...

But ne'ermind, for this evening we are back in the Kitto Cottage to talk about another important gaming topic. It's the subject us Game Art peeps don't like - Game Technology. So this is about how games are played, user interfaces, controllers and what have you.

I have to start by laying down the ground rule, which is this: Everyone's got their own favourite controller, but the perfect gaming interaction device, for me, is the keyboard + mouse. Oh yes, for FPS play, you can get no better. For strategy games, the mouse is equally perfect. Other games, such as the more arcadey ones, can still be played with the keyboard, granted it's not going to be quite as streamlined as if one was using a controller, but it still works. So there, keyboard and mouse working together is my input of choice. Oh yes indeed.

Back in the olden days, console controllers were paddle types. Rather than being large paddles that could be swung around (I'm waiting for Nintendo to catch onto this idea) they were blocks with turning dials in them. All in all, you can't send very much input using a paddle.

However, soon enough we got the button controllers we know and love. These were probably the best compromise between simplicity and functionality in video game history. There weren't tens of buttons like on a keyboard, there weren't any wobbly sticks (At first) or wave-aroundness. It was a D-Pad, Start and a few action buttons, and for most games this sufficed nicely.

But game controllers would always run parallell with the kinds of games that were being released. Back in the day of Pong, a paddle was all you needed. As side-scrollers came along, suddenly there was a need for a D-Pad and action buttons, and as soon as the more 3D games came along, notably Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64, the c0ntrol stick was invented. They're on every console now, and they seem like a standard-issue done thing, but I remember the endless amusement back in the day, when the N64 was doing something amazing, never done before. The N64 control stick wasn't actually that good in my opinion, especially going back to it after getting used to the modern incarnations. It was quite difficult to control, was a bit wobbly and it sometimes felt a little unfirm while controlling characters. A certain plumber fell off many a ledge due to that stick...

Still, Sony immediately perfected the design for their Dual Shock controller, adding two as per the standard Sony mentality. The Dreamcast did it properly, including a genius VMU slot, how I love thee. Then of course the XBox and XBox360 followed the PS2/PS3's direction.

Nintendo always love to be different, and they set the trends (They invented the shoulder button, I might add. Random trivia for you). A few years ago they introduced a touch screen on their Nintendo DS, which has really taken off and allowed for completely new game designs. I know a few who aren't keen on trying something new, and believe it to be gimmicky, but I've no sympathy for such a claim. Trying something new is how you move ahead, because you don't discover new lands without first losing sight of the shore.

And of course there's this Wii thingy, which seems to be going down quite a storm in Japan and America. As a point of note, and a point of endless amusement in years to come, the Wii has not yet been released as I write this. I've pre-ordered! In fact it's going to be released in just under 25 hours. I won't pass comment on it yet, but again Nintendo are doing it differently; moving away from the 'highway to the PC' that the PS3 and XBox360 are on, and going off in another direction. It's a new way of interacting with games, allowing developers to think up new ways to create games, and subsequently opening a new chapter of gameplay. Gosh this is sounding dry.

So without further ado, let's move on to what this whole post is actually about.

STEEL BATTALION

Ahh yes, enough of this politeness about magic wand controllers being the way forward. In truth, Steel Battalion, or Teki [Iron Horseman] if you're Japanese, is the way to go.

What's Steel Battalion then? It's a game built around a controller. A really big controller. Actually it's a war simulator, where you pilot VTs, or Vertical Tanks. Sure, it's Japanese Mechwarrior (By no means a bad thing), but the controller is what makes the game.

Buttons! Sticks! Eject case! Dial! Throttle!

Rather than being able to jump in and start stopming around the place like it's anyone's business, you're required to do the full startup sequence, booting all the various systems up and so on. You have to learn the controls, read the manual (As the helpful computer tells you), and master this way of playing that no other game has done before.

It gives the game a completely new dimension, as it's not as simple as moving a control stick and hitting a button. It adds some realism, which isn't going to be for everyone, but some people will really love it (I'm a sucker for this sort of thing). Steel Battalion is just one game, but it can be used as an example of any game that comes with its own peripheral, like that Sega Fishing, or maybe Samba de Amigo.

The point is that perhiperals, and moreover the way we interact with videogames can have a huge effect on the amount of fun we have with them. Sure, I could play Mechwarrior on my PC, but I'd sure rather play it inside a Tesla II Pod. That extra dimension of realism elevates enjoyment in a plane that gameplay and game design in general just can't do. The wise make the most of the controller they're using, the unwise port games to consoles without optimising controls, and the hardcore create their own controllers.