Motion Plus: perfect for Ninja games?

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that had thought of this, but for the sake of spreading information (and hopefully having a game developer picking up with the idea), here is a blog post about it.

The concept is simple, just mapping some actions from Wii Sports Resort into player actions as if the character was a ninja. Notice it is for a ninja GAME, and not really an accurate description of ninja actions in real history, so I'm taking from the point-of-view of entertainment only.

1. Freesbee Golf / Dog = Shuriken throwing

Shurikens and freesbees could share some of the same air dynamics. Both tilt and speed would be measured. One could also use tilt to make a curved throw, hitting partially obscured targets.

2. Swordplay = Katana fighting / Chain-whip / Blade-whip / etc

Aside from the obvious usage of katana fighting, there could be countless variations such as fighting with dual blades, small blades, defensive concealed blades on the wrist, etc. adding to a good amount of weapon strategy. Even whips could be implemented with nice physics simulation and a good deal of precision!

3. Basketball = Ninja grappling hooks

The motion of picking up a ball and throwing could be adapted to aim and throw a ninja hook with precise angle and speed. Just like in basketball, this is a 2-phase action (picking + throwing), adapted to "rolling the wire" and throwing. While rolling, this could also be used as a weapon, since the wire can collide with enemies. Rolling could happen at any angle (by the player's side, or over the player's head, etc). "Throwing" would mean to pick the wire momentum and directing the hook to the given angle of the controller. Sounds confusing?

4. Island Flyover = Trained birds

Ok, this is a bit of a stretch, but games don't need to be as boring as real-life, so why not? Suppose our ninja has some amount of trained birds that can carry and deliver paper notes (information), drop smoke bombs, etc. The bird itself could be controller using the same scheme as seen in island flyover.

5. Bow and Arrow = Poisoned darts

Aiming mechanics could be inspired from the Bow and Arrow sections, but mapped to aiming poisoned darts. The nunchuck would not be useful here, but the aiming could probably be adapted to a better match. Why not just use the infra-red sensor you ask? Well, using the IR sensor feels like shooting from a gun, while the motion plus aiming feels more like the player is holding some sort of precise tool. I know it sounds stupid, but I feel it could be more immersive.

Well, there are lots of ideas flying around, and I'm sure someone can write even better ones. If you feel like it, just leave a comment :)

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars new screenshots

Hey, IGN published some shiny new screenshots from Mushroom Men on the Wii, and I must say, they look awesome.

Do yourself a favor and check it out, NOW.

BTW, I'm not going to analyse those, because in all honesty there isn't much in terms of special effects that we can discuss about. Some pictures show even those simple ellipse-shaped oldschool shadows. But the art direction is awesome, the characters stand out really well, and I can't wait to finally play it.

Scrutinizing: The Conduit (Wii)

So, the good folks at IGN have posted a bunch of new screenshots from The Conduit.
That means it's time for another round of our little Scrutinizing series.

Let's get started:

In the above shot, we can see some cool lighting effects going on. Notice how the central objects emits light that affects the walls around it, while also "bleeding" colors as if being recorded by a camera. On the down side, some sections of the geometry are too simplistic when viewed from a near distance, and some walls could benefit from a little bump-mapping.



This door look painfully bad, but the weapon is awesome!


The High-Voltage guys seem to be concentrating a lot of effort on the alien characters. Here we can see quite detailed alien structures coming from the walls. Too bad they can't seem to apply the same level of detail on the environment, as the ceiling textures look very blurry. Maybe the lack of video memory is to blame?


A very nice radial blur effect takes place, making the guy in the front appear unfocused. Notice there is a blue light hitting their shoulders and legs from the right. Very cool!

This is the same scene, but from a regular viewpoint. Now we can see the blue light is coming from the screen on the right. The screen itself bleeds a blue color on the camera lens. Oh, and take a good look at the helmets, as they show some reflections... probably an environment mapping effect, with static texture. Lovely. The control room, on the other hand, could be more detailed.


Aliens are again fairly well detailed, casting nice shadow effects on the floor. The white door shines with environment mapping. w00t! :)


Weeeeeeeeee, I'm a happy alien!!! \o/ Those are very cool effects on his body. Hey, those table shadows, could they be pre-calculated? If so, I'm guessing this table is undestructible.

This scene looks so empty. How about putting some vases, plants, paintings on the wall...? Also, I can't help but think this floor should be reflective, and not opaque.

Wow, I don't know what's going on, but it looks interesting, specially the water effects. The ugly sandbags keep getting in the way though (look in the past screenshots and you'll know what I mean, those are ancient and without and signs of improvement so far).

Guys, I'm glad those insects can fly around without getting stuck on waypoints (are they using volumetric areas instead)? Why aren't there any metalic materials on the environment...? You'd think a control room would have a lot of metalic objects, like maybe those pillars at the right.

What a mess. I like how the sun shines through the windows. The aim looks tilted, maybe the game is reading the controller angle?

Fire and smoke particle effects, nice!

I'm very pleased so far with the kind of polishing they are putting onto this game. Let's hope High-Voltage will be able to improve the environments just a little bit before launching, so as long as the gameplay don't suffer for it.

Scrutinizing: Deadly Creatures Wii

I was watching the developer walkthrough video for Deadly Creatures on the Wii, when I felt the urge to comment some of the in-game images. Who knows, maybe some developer will stumble upon this and at least take some points into consideration, from a humble gamer who wants to see this game succeed.

So, let's get started:



1. In the above image, although the model and textures look quite nice, there is an overall "bland" feeling, like the scene lacks some lighting. Maybe some bump maps could add a fine specularity to the creature skin (the Wii hardware can do that natively, AFAIK).



2. Again, the scorpion body is perfectly modeled, but there is no specularity. I suspect that even a measly environment map could do the trick. The shadow also looks too weak.



3. I'm not so sure about this rat. It looks evil enough, but it also looks a bit like a bat (heh, that sounds funny). Maybe its fur could be modeled as a series of concentric textures, like the bee queen in Super Mario Galaxy.



4. This scene looks great, I love the camera angle and the subtle focus. I just hope the textures for that man in the background are detailed enough... Also, the TV screen could emit some sort of colored local light.



5. This is where we can see a cool gameplay aspect, as the bug walks over walls and objects in all directions as the camera follows it from behind. My only gripe with this scene is the same from the previous scene: no local lights on the TV screen.



6. Please guys, spend 3 or 4 more quads in this particle system. Seriously!



7. Lighting is a bit awkward in this scene, as both characters are dark while the floor is well lit. There are no shadows below them whatsoever, and again, no specular lights on the snake's scales (that could make it look even more terrifying in the dark).

Well, I think this is it for now.
I hope this game turns out to be a big hit :)
(oh, and BTW, sorry about the bad English).