Blog - Experimenting on Our Beloved Mario...
Thursday, April 3, 2008Shortly after finding the Super Mario Movie (see previous entry) or maybe while looking for it, I stumbled upon an interesting youtube video:
A Super Mario Bros. clone controlled with a camera vision interface.
A camera records the position of your hand and projects its image into the came world, which you can use to push objects around. I've used such a system once where all you did was push a ball around...
But I loved how this completely reinvented the game of Mario.
Making him jump by actually physically flicking him into the air, etc.
Also interesting is the second portion of the video where in whatever system they're using, they spawn dozens and dozens of Marios into the game and try to play by all herding them using the hand. This wildly warps how the game is played even more than before.
Even more interesting, was while trying to find that video on youtube again, so I could link to it like above, I found another video with an entirely different way to play Super Mario Bros. - WITH SOUND!!!
Again, it completely changes the game, making it play in a very new, and fresh way.
It turns playing the classic game into a collaborative musical experience - How cool is that?
I especially like it because it basically puts an entirely different twist on the Fret Nice aesthetic I've mentioned earlier.
It might be harder to use than that... but the fact that you can use any instrument, explore what sounds do what, and multiple players can control Mario as one token...
all interesting.
And, unlike Fret Nice you can actually play the game as a real musical piece!
It might be a rather strange piece of music, admittedly, as the timing would be no doubt rather odd... (although the groove they have going on at the end sounds pretty good to me!)
It will, on the other hand, fit the game like a perfect soundtrack, which is pretty exceptional in of itself, particularly as its an entirely optional way to play. It might be the most open ended controller I've ever seen.
I find it interesting that both games have used Super Mario Bros. as the base game: it is, it seems, the quintessential video game. A system everyone is familiar with. Particularly with that first iconic level of the game.
These projects work because even though they're controlled in extremely alien ways, it's still Mario, we know what to do. Jump on the goombas. Don't fall down holes, etc. While we're stuck figuring out how to use the new control system, we still have familiar signs to latch onto so we're not lost.
That's a lesson taken from games themselves: designers must walk the fine line between innovating just enough that the game seems fresh and original, but not so much that the players are lost (or the people who have to market the game, for that matter...)
Labels: controllers, design
posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 12:29 AM
1 Comments:
Jeff said...
Sound has always interested me, in terms of game design. Guitar Hero and the like just don't do it for me, mostly because it's just a poor substitution for actually playing the instruments [which I do]. Sound as a control device is also very interesting. There is a game where players need to shout as loud as they can in order to propel a racer forward. Somewhat similar to what Clap Your Hands Say Mario did, though on a much more narrow track.
Also, games have been developed for the blind, using sound as the soul output, rather than the input. There are also a few games that centre on blindness, such as Isabelle for the PC and Enemy Zero for the Sega Saturn. the former used it solely as a narrative device while the latter used sound as an integral piece to gameplay.
I suppose as a musician I'm a little predisposed to sound, though when really looking at it, sound controls so much of our experiences in life. Familiar voices and inflections, idioms, etc. What if there was a game like Simon Says but where players needed to recognize individuals voices rather than tones?
The possibilities are endless when we take button pads and joysticks out of the picture.