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What Could the Xbox Kinect Mean for the Future of Storytelling?

11.6.10 @ 2:11PM Tags : 3rdrail, gaming, interactive, kinect, microsoft, videgames

In case you missed it, Microsoft’s motion-sensing add-on to their Xbox 360 gaming console, Microsoft Kinect, launched this week. Word on the street is the software giant is spending $400 million just to promote the device — more than the entire budget of Avatar, depending on who you ask. More than just a Nintendo Wii rip-off, however, the Kinect portends major changes to come in natural user interfaces as well as a further push into online video distribution by Microsoft (relevant disclosure: we had a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Microsoft last year regarding our project 3rd Rail. Oops, was I not supposed to disclose that?). More »

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Presentation: Design Outside the Box

03.8.10 @ 12:00PM Tags : games, gaming, presentation

I have played one video game in four years; I’m not a gamer per se. But the ongoing revolution in social and casual games has been hard to miss, from watching my little cousins playing Club Penguin to the irrepressible Facebook invites I’m always getting for Mafia Wars. To date social games have been used as part of a feature film’s marketing campaign (most recent example: The Crazies), but they will become increasingly integrated into the core story. I’m already working on a social game as an integral component of my next project.

For the future of (social) gaming in one entertaining 30-minute presentation, here’s Jessie Schell’s invaluable primer from DICE 2010.

Watch it all the way to the end, as his final point is worth the half hour on its own. And if you think it’s just a thrown-in feel-good ending, the success of Nike Plus (sidebar) and more recent entrant Fitbit is living proof of socialization’s effectiveness when it comes to modifying real-world behavior.

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Seen: Heavy Rain

03.2.10 @ 12:00PM Tags : games, gaming, heavyrain, seen

According to the New York Times review, the new Playstation 3 game Heavy Rain offers “a glimpse of the future of interactive entertainment, a future when characterization, writing and emotional connection are more important than combat mechanics.”

Another tidbit from the Times review: the script for Heavy Rain was over 2,000 pages long.

As a storyteller I’m less interested in the skill and coordination aspect of videogames, and more interested in the choices one has to make as a player/participant in interactive movies. The rest of the reviews of the game/movie are also overwhelmingly positive, and I look forward to playing/watching (I guess I should I just say “experiencing”) it.