CES 2009: Kodu Impressions
Microsoft gives gamers the chance to become game creators.
January 9, 2009 - At CES 2009 in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft showed off Kodu, an ambitious new project set to debut on the Xbox Community Games Channel this spring. Pronounced "Code-u," the title is one (big) part game creator and second part game. While comparisons have already been made to efforts such as LittleBigPlanet, Kodu's creation tools are much more robust, its depth -- demonstrated to us in a private suite on Friday -- staggering. This, because Kodu doesn't merely enable users to arrange a series of templates, but build worlds from scratch, setting their shapes and sizes, placing objects and inhabitants, devising sets of characteristics, behavioral logics, and more. Casual players will be able to jump into the experience easily using a series of pre-designed configurations. Those with a little more determination, though, will be able to build their experiences ground-up. Microsoft calls it visual programming and having seen it in action Kodu seems to deliver just.
The title ships with 20 sample games and another 20 sample worlds. You'll be able to jump directly into them if that's all you want to do, but Kodu encourages players to participate and ultimately to edit. So, even after you've reached the game over screen in one of the included sample titles, Kodu will ask if you would like to edit the game. If you choose yes, you'll be able to load all of its attributes, from design to logic elements, from controls to camera positioning, and then go crazy.
There are 20 in-game character models to begin with and Microsoft says more will become available over time. The models feature unique shape, detection and physics, and but all other attributes are definable. There's the flying saucer, which hovers over the world. The motorcyclists, which hugs the terrain. The kick-ready push pad, which is inspired by the bumpers in a pinball machine. The stick, a turret-like device that is able to hide underground. Or even the turtle, who glides above land, but can roll up into a ball when necessary.
There is amazing depth to the logic systems. Using the program editor, you can pick any random model and start assigning it behaviors. For instance -- and off the top of our heads -- if the saucer encounters other moving characters, it can be made to glow red, start firing projectiles, strafe to the left or right, or ride around in circles, glide away after a certain time limit, and so on. The list goes on and on and on because there are literally dozens of options that combine to create very unique logic for player-controlled models and NPCs alike. We could and eventually will write a full-blown feature about this particular element alone. This is programming without the endless lines of code, the bugs and the rewrites.
But before you even get to that, you'll probably want to start with the terrain builder. You select from some 20 different blocks and then hold down a button to start spreading them around. From a distance, it appears as though you're spray painting a black canvas, but the blocks show their geometrical perimeters upon closer inspection. You can mix and match block types for different texture and color. And once you've done that, you can raise and lower formations to create hills, mountains and all other manners of polygonal formations that will ultimately define the base of your game world. Erect makeshift trees and rocks. Add oceans. Etc. As with the model creator, the terrain builder is designed to be intuitively used, accessible for kids -- a truth that Microsoft demonstrated at its CES press conference when a 12-year-old girl showed off her Kodu skills on stage.
At any point, you can simply hit the play button and the edit mode gives way to the experience you've created. If you've assembled control attributes for a main character who can run and jump and a series of 3D ledges in the distance, you've got the makings of a platformer. But maybe you like racers so you instead constructed a 3D track and placed motorcyclists on it, multiplying their speed attribute. Perhaps you look to shoot stuff instead. So you've created a 3D maze and strewn so-called enemies all about it. You've given them logic to shoot missile projectiles at you when they've been spotted. Next, you'll pulled in the camera. Closer. A little closer. Now it's popped into the first-person. The beginnings of an FPS. These perimeters are there to be toyed with and the creation process is a necessary function of the Kodu experience.
Utilizing a simple interface that relies on the analog sticks to position the camera and move the cursor around 3D environments, Kodu is an impressive piece of software that we look forward to exploring at length. Gamers took the toolset in LittleBigPlanet and created thousands upon thousands of levels. With a much deeper toolset at their disposal, we think Kodu users old and young will be able to create some ingenious, wholly engaging experiences. As one Microsoft rep put it during our demo, "If only this had been available when we were kids."
