This is a post I put on my blog. I think should be here in gaming discussion because I analized a problem in motion controls in general and the potential nightmare in HD

source: http://taiga-viejodani.blogspot.com/2009/06/motion-controls-hd-nightmare.html

The analysis about the digital distribution models will arrive later. I decided to post this to give you an insight with hopes to opening your eyes of a problem that seems to be invisible thanks to the previous E3’s buzz, PR and many other things to get you hyped and in most cases, seriously blind.

Developing games follow a similar process to developing software applications. From the concept to the actual final release, they both go through the same stages in order to be successful. As a software developer (and independent game programmer that has long ways to go) I have been involved in many of these steps to guarantee the correct functionality of a product and this will be useful when I start developing games in the future(my dream). Thanks to this I started to imagine myself developing a game for each of the three consoles using their motion control mechanism using gathered data from sites, playing motion controlled games, and reading comments from third party game companies that developed for all of them no matter the current control mechanism. What I found is the potential…………of a big development nightmare.

One of the most important features or any software, including games, is the interface. Interface is what connects two independent systems, which in games and common desktop software is what connects the user to the machine, we call them user interfaces. When you develop software, the input is considered to me pretty much straightforward (keyboard and mouse) and other things can be taken for granted or of little importance like audio, so the resources can be focused in the graphical user interface (also known as GUI) because is what the user sees when he or she runs the software. On games, the story is way different; you have other user interfaces to take into consideration or the game will not be appealing like the audio (is pretty much taken care of because of the vast number of libraries and the lessons that can be learned from the movie industry about sound/visual effects and soundtrack) and of course, the controller.

OH!! The controller!!

Yeah….. The controller. Before the Nintendo Wii, controllers haven’t had huge leaps in advancements in over 20 years: from joystick to d-pad, shoulder buttons, analog joysticks and rumble feedback. This allowed many game developers to adapt relatively easy despite the limited number of buttons compared to the usual computer interface that is the keyboard and mouse. But unlike many people think, that adaptation didn’t come without some of the worst results in control mechanics that humanity has ever seen. You can learn many of these bad examples through history thanks to the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN). He showed that many game developers had problems with the controllers even with a very simple one that is the NES controller. The main reason is that game testing was not taken into consideration to see the flaws that the programmers ignore. After all, a developer makes games for the customer and has to think always on the customer’s behavior... right? And don’t think that the problem has been solved because all game developers have their own testing and debugging procedures to stop this issue because I can give you examples of PS3 and Xbox360 games that have seriously broken controls (Wii is not here, for the motion controls goes in another paragraph so no fanboyism please) with an interface that has not changed since last generation. The reason, while many of these companies have testers and debuggers, they do not give them the importance they deserve because they take game controls for granted. “If it worked on GTA or Halo, of course it will work here”, this is what I believe they think about control mechanisms as they increase the focus on graphics and audio.

Now, with this past E3, motion controls has arrived to become the new standard control mechanism for games. And while many are awed and drooling as they imagine all the possibilities with the game franchises or genres they love, I took my time to think carefully as a developer to see how they can be implemented in my games... Oooooooh my god!! With the motion controls, the player has more freedom and wants to make movements that he or she considers natural (or unnatural, not in a perverted sense) hoping for the game to respond accordingly. This means that the developer has to consider ALL possibilities and send them to the testing department to see what it might be missing, and the testers must act like the customers and play in every possible way a single level from start to finish over and over and over again…. on all levels in the game. This means that developers have two options: hire more people to keep on schedule, or delay the game until all tests are successful. Both options will have the same consequence, more costs.
Now, before you counter my argument by saying that developers that worked on the Wii will have little to no problem to make games for the PS3 and Xbox360 with motion controls, think well about the games they released on Nintendo’s console. Thanks to the market perception, Wii games are commonly classified into four categories:

• Good games
• Wagglefest
• Casual wagglefest
• Broken controlled games

Then separate the games released on Wii into these four categories and you will see that the majority of games have fallen into the last three because the developers have not paid the required attention on how to make it properly, they didn’t bother to actually learn good experience in making games for them. They were focused on the HD graphics and great audio that has proven to be successful for them. Now because of the Sony’s purple wand and Natal, many Xbox360 and PS3 gamers want to have motion controls for their games (how nice of them!) just for the sake to prove that the Wii was a failure from the start. So the experience the developers denied themselves to have back then must now be gained in a much faster pace them before, and will be worst IF Sony and Microsoft require that the games have the motion controls as the optional (or main) control system. Very fewgames can be consireder good core games and the majority comes from Nintendo. This is why many developers think that only Nintendo games sell on Nintendo systems, because they want to hide their inexperience and lack of will to actually focus on making good games for the console.

Motion controls require changes in many of the development stages from design to testing, debugging and releasing in order to make a very good game. These changes can have huge impact on the development costs because resources cannot be shifted from the audio and graphics department. They raised the bar in those departments on PS3 and Xbox360 that the gamers demand that this bar shall not be lowered. So many developers will have these six main options:

• Keep the same staff capacity and delay the release of the core game: this means more money because time has a value and means the increase of the development costs, the highest retail price might have to be reconsidered (some angry customers may arise).
• Hire more people to keep the schedule and release the game on time: again, huge development costs and the price might have to be reconsidered (some angry customers may arise).
• Shift Resources from other departments: on this there are two possibilities, reduce the resources from other departments like the graphical and audio in which might result in a “lower quality” product from the core gamer on the HD systems. Or develop a less number of games in which will become a huge financial risk in these economical times.
• Make the motion controls secondary and just optional: this will allow them to focus on the game as the gamers want and give little importance to motion controls (as they have done before). This will make the motion control devices from Sony and Microsoft irrelevant, and that’s what these companies don’t want to.
• Limit the motion controls to a small set of “controlled” movements: This can make you think that all the power and potential of the motion technology is wasted and reduced drastically the value (not the price) of the device. It could get the same result with cheaper, more limited(aka crappier) technology.
• Make a “casual” game to steal the Wii’s audience: yeah, as if was THAT easy. Nintendo Wii is not on top because of the motion controls alone (as the birdmen described by Sean Malstrom think) but because the focus is on the customers. The customers think of the Wii as a valuable high quality product (quality not in terms of technology) with a great customer service from Nintendo that they can always trust, it has the content they want to have, among many other reasons.

And last, before you readers tell me about the tech demos showcased on E3 by Sony and Microsoft. Tech demos are NOT full games. A tech demo is just something that proves that the technology works in controlled scenarios, and full games show how well the technology works no matter the input from the user in all scenarios thought by the developer and the user… And oh my, the user has a lot more imagination than the developer when it comes to input. And a downloadable demo from the developers won't work unless they want to risk by letting know how inexperienced they are with motion controls (no matter the console)

Nintendo made a very smart choice by not having HD on the Wii console and keeping the architecture similar to the Gamecube’s. This will help reduce the development costs on graphics and audio keeping the quality (time and experience can make things easier and cheaper when the system has not a huge hardware change) and shift them into focusing on the motion controls, the testing, the feedback, the content, etc…. The Wii is trully something

I think that the costs to making the game is now even higher. I dought 3rd party are staying in the market now

Technology for gaming is not that simple to implement. Many scenarios have to be tested in order to guarantee a proper functionality.. Motion controls can be user friendly, but may not me developer friendly

You really have to approach motion controlled games from a design perspective. Adding motion controls to most games doesn't always improve the game play (I'll opine that it rarely improves) and in some instances, can even hinder or worsen it.

But if you design a game initially around the interface, catering specifically to the input, the only limitations are the technology being used, the imagination of the designer, and the implementation by the developer.

While it sounds like MS is trying to market Natal as the future of Xbox, it really seems more practical for it to be a niche genre sub market at most. And while I hope their support is better than SCE's support for PSEye (which dropped off a cliff in 2008), making it their primary input device would probably be a big mistake.

That being said, if developers have good ideas they'd like to implement on the Xbox using motion controls, it will happen. How the public receives them will ultimately determine the viability of future projects, whether motion controls become a sub niche or accepted as mainstream within the Xbox user base.

I'm thinking the former, rather than the latter is more likely.

I expect to see a fair amount of XBLA motion control games either way.

I am not a game developer, but I do program. When I think of motion controls, good near 1:1 motion controls, the thing I imagine would give me a headache is animations. Developers are used to having a few set animations for a character. They even bring in stunt people and sports stars to try to get the animations lifelike. Not only does that improve the look of the game, it makes development easier. If I can focus just on a finite subset of movements, my scope is more manageable.

Now with motion controls (especially Natal) that mode of thinking is gone. I have to program my characters to be able to do almost anything. I must think about the skeletal structure of my character and their clothes, and I must do it in real time while concurrently determine the player's motion and render HD textures.

I think hes missing the most important point. If your Wii motion controls are broken and you reach deadline then you have to release the game. If your Xbox 360 Natal implementation just sucks then you've probably got a regular controller to fall back on and you can cut the feature and even if you don't cut the feature it still won't prevent people from enjoying the game.

developers have the options to have the classic controller or the gamecube controller on Wii games. Monter Hunter G was released in Japan and required the classic controller in order to play it, it does not used motion controls at all.

on Natal, if the feature is cut, it's fine to teh developer but will nullify Natal and the potential to be a market success diminished, meaning that Microsoft should never have worked on Natal in the first place

Err you're crazy. I don't see why/how you got your reply from my post. I think you need to think things through again or something.

this i couldnt have said it better myself