Featured on Gamasutra
So, looks like my Principles of Virtual Sensation article went up as a feature on Gamasutra. Coolness.
Principles of Virtual Sensation
This was actually a draft that got posted; I’m in the process of revising and cleaning up the language. But, hey, neat that they wanted to post it as-is and great motivation to write more neat stuff 
. Also, I realized now I never actually posed on my blog proper about the article itself, even though it’s been linked from the sidebar for weeks.
Whee!
4 Comments
Great article Steve! I think you did a great job of showing what intrinsically feels good by example and then going deeper into why those actions evoke a certain emotion. It was definitely a “pull up a chair and concentrate” type article, at least if you aren’t used to reading academic-ish type language like me. Even though I had to read some things two or three times I was able to follow the article well and the examples went a long way in tying in that “ahhh” moment in getting across certain concepts.
I really liked your game examples too, I spent way to many hours playing ski stunt simulator, and it was really easy to associate that with the high resolution input and sandboxy type elements you talk about. Around page 5 when you were talking about traction and state swapping I immediately though of mario kart ds, and then low and behold I see a screenshot on the next page
You do a great job of getting your thoughts into text, and those thoughts are interesting to read, bravo!
You kind of touched on multiplayer interaction a little bit at the end of the article, and some of the things from this one over-lap with multiplayer games – but I would love to read another article based on a similar set of absolute truths about multiplayer interaction and environments and what different things make them satisfying.
This was a great article. I especially liked the interactive examples you provided!
Thankyou very much for such an important article. The alsoran has since passed it onto his team as it cites many of the core fundamentals that must be kept at the forefront of a videogame animator’s mind when making aesthetic decisions, especially for player character reactions, and echos many of his own ideas only presented in a much more complete and mature manner.
Most of the alsoran’s insights have led him to the notion shared (and eloquently explored) in your article that the “feel” of the game lies in the amount of delay between the input and the character/vehicle/block’s reaction and movement in the gameworld, with the additional layer of how the actor behaves when doing so along with any additional aural and visual feedback.
One thing the alsoran would point out is the imbalance of the piece in its briefness on the topic of visual feedback. His current project is now coming into it’s closing phases, and much time is being spent balancing the “feel” of the player character, only now possible due to the finalisation of the world within which he will exist and interact. Using mocap, the initial variables were all based in this pre-determined reality rather than taking some arbitary speed/momentum values, and one thing that has become apparent is that perhaps more so than simply moving a box around an empty tiled environment, the visual (percieved) feedback of the character influences the “feel” far more than expected.
The player character now changes his animations based on speed, acceleration and deceleration, and matching acceleration in the game-world to the animation rather than vice-versa has become the apparently correct direction. Colleagues have often commented on the how we “sped up” the game based on how far the player leans into his run, or how fast the animation rate plays back, even going so far as to offer consistent comments on combat-mode being faster than non-combat due to a wider camera Field Of View. As mentioned in your article, the camera has now become an important tool in conveying Virtual Sensation due to its ability to be animated like any other character bone – essentially becoming the latest addition to the game animator’s toolkit.
The games industry is looking more and more for a “language” with which to describe the unique areas of the artform (for it is an artform) not present in other more established media, and your ideas go a large way towards achieving this. Once again, thank you.
Great article Steve! You have some really great insights in there. The demos are a very nice feature also.