Microsoft Kinect And Games That Effect A New Consciousness

From the Ubisoft store, the description of Child of Eden the game reads: “Child of Eden thrusts you in the center of a battle to save Project Lumi, a mission to reproduce a human personality inside Eden, the archive of all human memories. As the project nears completion, the archive is invaded by an unknown virus. The Player’s mission is to purify Eden from the virus to restore hope and peace.”

What’s interesting about this game is that the strategy is what I consider ‘a game that effects a new consciousness’. There’s a problem, it is the players job to solve it. It’s a collective problem that effects everyone. Much like the problems we are faced with in our world today.  It also reminds me of the theories that Jane McGonigal (@avantgame) presents in her work. Most of the problems our world is faced with can only be solved by effecting a change within, by effecting a new collective consciousness. Games really do present such an opportunity for collective collaboration on solutions for peace.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team at Q Entertainment are the artistic and musical creators behind the game whileUbisoft was the games publisher. The game’s art and sound are outstanding and really usher in what is a new generation of visual and artistic standards for games. Not to mention that playing this game on Microsoft’s Kinect is a whole new heightened experience of gaming, ‘where you are the controller, no gadgets, no gizmos, just you!’  The combination really highlights what the future of games will represent, problem solving esoteric, ‘trippy’, yet oh so very intelligent narratives which reflect our place in time. That’s if you believe in time? It is apparently a construction…

The biggest news for us at VectorBloom is that Microsoft, as of last month has opened up the Kinect SDK for developers. The non-commercial beta release is available for download here. For the past 2 years we’ve been developing apps and games for iOS, while also working on the art and play concepts for the 3D game narratives we wish to create. I always envisioned that VectorBloom would eventually enter the realm of gaming for 3D space, looks like this is happening much sooner than I planned. Kinect is opportunity that we’re eager to jump onto as part of our game development.

This article was first published on The Vector Loft: a blog by VectorBloom!