14 DAY TRIAL // The Kinect motion tracking system for the Xbox 360 home console has been a success for Microsoft when it comes to sales, but one leading video games developer believes that companies are still struggling with creating tailor-made experiences for it.
Tim Schafer, who is the leader of development at Double Fine, told VG247 that, “I think they’re still trying to figure out how to make great games for Kinect. I think the best games for Kinect are games that were, like the Happy Action Theater, created wholly from scratch for the Kinect. They’re just designed for it.”
He added, “It’s not a replacement for an Xbox controller. There’s no right button, there’s no pressure in the left stick – it’s not a port. You can’t port your game to Kinect.
“You really have to start from the beginning and think about all the motions that the Kinect sensor is good at picking out, and all the activities that it picks up really well that have never been able to be detected before. Like directional voice; it can tell where in the room you’re talking from. Basing work around those strengths, I think, will lead to the best Kinect game.”
Double Fine has just launched Happy Action Theater, which they created for Kinect from the ground up, with 18 activities aimed squarely at young players.
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, a previous game from Double Fine, also used Kinect for some of its gameplay.
The motion tracking system from Microsoft, and its Move counterpart from Sony, have been mainly used as gimmicks, adding some features to games but rarely used as the base for all the mechanics of a game.
Rumors that have neither been confirmed nor denied by Microsoft are suggesting that the next home console to use the Xbox brand will have a better Kinect sensor built in.