Mentok
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Peter Molyneux talks about next gen fighting...
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Fenrir
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Molyneux has got a big mouth, I'll give him that. But still, he's the guy who created the super-awesome Black & White, and I enjoyed Fable as well (even though it was nothing like it was hyped up to be) so I'll give him a chance. 
The Evolutionist
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At the Games Convention Developer Conference today in Leipzig, Germany, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux gave a speech on the idea of next-generation combat in videogames. Molyneux's discussion started out by looking at how today's game combat got to its current state, noting that Street Fighter 2 influenced many game developers to believe that hit points, life bars, and non-realistic attacks should be included in every game. He feels this is not necessarily realistic.
Molyneux showed some "realistic" footage of teenagers simulating medieval times in a backyard somewhere -- a joke designed to show that most humans wouldn't have any idea what to do with a sword if they were given one. But -- as subsequent clips from Kill Bill revealed -- certain characters can be extremely effective with pseudo-realistic combat.
"Swords are sharp," he repeated a few times, pointing out that in one scene of Kill Bill, every single time Uma Thurman swings her sword, somebody dies. Molyneux theorized that this concept could be put into a game, with parries and other types of attacks included for boss fights and scenes that the designers would want to last longer.
All this added up to a few lessons learned by the team at Lionhead after some experimentation in this area: realistic fighting needs to use environments to alter player attacks with context sensitive moves, one button fighting can be possible if the designers use proximity and timing/charging of button presses to require player skill, one hit "fatal blows" could be done well to raise the "drama of combat," and the lack of an on-screen HUD or GUI allows a lot of things to be done easier with a new combat model.
To demonstrate these ideas, Molyneux showed off two test sequences -- one on a staircase and one in a bar. Though these featured characters from Fable, Molyneux insists this was just done to save time and these are not tests for Fable 2. In the videos, characters can be seen fighting up a stairway and using broken chairs that fall to the ground in context sensitive moves to attack enemies. By kicking a broken half of a chair directly at an enemy, players can experience more dramatic combat, as the theory goes.
As many of the questions from developers in the audience indicated, these are not ideas that everyone believes in. Elements like one button fighting and taking away player choice with context sensitive moves are controversial but interesting ways that game combat may evolve in the coming years.
Towards the end of Molyneux's talk, he made it clear that this panel was not a thinly veiled way of promoting the combat in one of his company's upcoming games, though these are naturally ideas he and his team are considering. "A lot of what I've talked about here will never make it into any game, but maybe some of it will," he said. We expect to see Fable 2 at Microsoft's X06 event next month, and we'll be on the lookout to see how much, if any, of the ideas in today's talk make it into that game.
Ever the tease, Molyneux finished off his discussion by revealing a new piece of Fable 2 "concept art" he claimed to have drawn himself -- which after a few seconds of fussing around was revealed to be a crayon drawing looking like a kindergarten project. Looks like we'll have to wait for X06 for more.
Head over to GameVideos.com for video footage of Molyneux's tech demos.
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Sounds like he's moving in the right direction.
Molyneux showed some "realistic" footage of teenagers simulating medieval times in a backyard somewhere -- a joke designed to show that most humans wouldn't have any idea what to do with a sword if they were given one. But -- as subsequent clips from Kill Bill revealed -- certain characters can be extremely effective with pseudo-realistic combat.
"Swords are sharp," he repeated a few times, pointing out that in one scene of Kill Bill, every single time Uma Thurman swings her sword, somebody dies. Molyneux theorized that this concept could be put into a game, with parries and other types of attacks included for boss fights and scenes that the designers would want to last longer.
All this added up to a few lessons learned by the team at Lionhead after some experimentation in this area: realistic fighting needs to use environments to alter player attacks with context sensitive moves, one button fighting can be possible if the designers use proximity and timing/charging of button presses to require player skill, one hit "fatal blows" could be done well to raise the "drama of combat," and the lack of an on-screen HUD or GUI allows a lot of things to be done easier with a new combat model.
To demonstrate these ideas, Molyneux showed off two test sequences -- one on a staircase and one in a bar. Though these featured characters from Fable, Molyneux insists this was just done to save time and these are not tests for Fable 2. In the videos, characters can be seen fighting up a stairway and using broken chairs that fall to the ground in context sensitive moves to attack enemies. By kicking a broken half of a chair directly at an enemy, players can experience more dramatic combat, as the theory goes.
As many of the questions from developers in the audience indicated, these are not ideas that everyone believes in. Elements like one button fighting and taking away player choice with context sensitive moves are controversial but interesting ways that game combat may evolve in the coming years.
Towards the end of Molyneux's talk, he made it clear that this panel was not a thinly veiled way of promoting the combat in one of his company's upcoming games, though these are naturally ideas he and his team are considering. "A lot of what I've talked about here will never make it into any game, but maybe some of it will," he said. We expect to see Fable 2 at Microsoft's X06 event next month, and we'll be on the lookout to see how much, if any, of the ideas in today's talk make it into that game.
Ever the tease, Molyneux finished off his discussion by revealing a new piece of Fable 2 "concept art" he claimed to have drawn himself -- which after a few seconds of fussing around was revealed to be a crayon drawing looking like a kindergarten project. Looks like we'll have to wait for X06 for more.
Head over to GameVideos.com for video footage of Molyneux's tech demos.
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Sounds like he's moving in the right direction.
Avalanche
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The only idea I really like out of everything he said is that of longer boss fights. They really should feel a bit more epic in comparison to the ordinary fights that go before.
Everything else he suggested just sounded like a way of sapping away fun.
Everything else he suggested just sounded like a way of sapping away fun.
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