Microsoft Game Studios has big, big plans for the XBox 360’s Project Natal. After the overwhelming reception upon it’s E3 2009 showing (not to mention the “smoke and mirrors” controversy surrounding some of the demonstrations), MGS is prepping it’s motion sensing peripheral to exceed any classification as a simple “add-on”.
Relja Markovic is Technical Director at Microsoft Game Studios, currently working on an unannounced title for Project Natal. He designed the Gesture Recognizer System and it’s workflow, and has been on the project from it’s beginning stages to the actual product, building a team from scratch along the way. What’s more is the work he’s done in the past for MGS, which includes “representing the interests of more than a dozen MGS titles to the Platform team, working across the entertainment division”. The most interesting part are the patents currently associated with Natal – Markovic himself has “contributed to over 20 Natal related patents”.
Markovic also details how he built a “development team from 3 developers to a head count of over 20″. These 20 patents include the three demos showcased earlier as Markovic cites “setting the technological direction and goals for the E3 PaintParty, Richochet and Racing demos (as seen on the Jimmy Fallon Show, Good Morning America, and the E3 keynote)” as one of his management achievements.
hxxp://www.split-screen.com/2009/09/09/microsofts-project-natal-bigger-and-badder-than-we-thought/
