Blitz Games' Nash: Kinect, Natural User Interfaces 'Next Logical Step' To Holodeck

Author: by Staff

Blitz Games Studios design director John Nash used to dream about owning a jetpack. But now "natural user interfaces" like Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect have opened up a new dream. "Now I want my own holodeck," he writes in a new Gamasutra feature. "For me, NUIs like Kinect are the next logical step on a line between the potential and the holodeck itself. Being an impatient designer, I want to do as much as I can to bring that day closer." But there is work to be done as a game developer before living the Star Trek holodeck dream, as game designers adapt from button and stick controls to more natural interfaces. Nash details part the development process with Blitz's Yoostar 2, a "movie karaoke" game that puts players in the scenes of famous films. Even creating a simple on-screen Start button for a Kinect game was a learning process. That single button went through "several iterations," says Nash, most of which were deemed unintuitive in usability reports. Gesture controls also present a continuing challenge, Nash explains. "Interestingly, approximately 20 percent of players seem to have difficulty with the best gesture systems indicating that there is still much to learn in this area," he says. There are several more key aspects outlined in the full Gamasutra feature about creating games for natural user interfaces, as designers like Nash continue to strive for a true holodeck.