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This information comes from Warren Spector…

“First, there has never been a game that I couldn’t break if you give it to me for 30 seconds. I mean, I will break a camera in any game ever made. And if I learned one thing on this project, it’s an immense amount of respect for people who have been making third person action and platforming games. Third person camera is way harder than I even imagined it could be. It is the hardest problem in video game development. Everybody gets it wrong. It’s just a question of how close to right do you get it.

What I try to be completely clear about is that this is not a platforming game. This is a game that takes platforming elements and adventure game elements and role-playing elements and merges them. So we couldn’t tune the camera perfectly for platforming or for action adventure. It’s a very different camera style. What we did is try to find the best compromise in the moment and give the player as much manual control as we could. So we took the hardest problem in third-person gaming and made it harder by trying to accommodate two different playing styles. And I will go to my grave, imperfect as it is, proud as hell of my camera team

If reviewers want to give us a hard time about it because they’re misunderstanding the game we made, it’s not for me to tell them that they’re wrong, absolutely not. But I wish people would get it out of their head that we made a ‘Mario’ competitor, because we didn’t.”

The camera in Epic Mickey has definitely been one of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about the game. To be fair, I feel that Spector is right in that it isn’t easy to make a perfect camera. The system was criticized in Super Mario Sunshine, and even many titles today have similar issues. For those who have played the title, how many of you have been having trouble with Epic Mickey’s camera?

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Game of the Year

1. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
2. Disney Epic Mickey
3. Mass Effect II
4. NBA 2K11
5. Red Dead Redemption
6. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

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Nintendo and the American Heart Association Offer “12 Days of Getting Active” Holiday Tips

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– A new survey from the American Heart Association shows that playing active-play video games can lead players to participate in more real-world physical activity. According to the survey, 58 percent of people who play active-play video games have begun a new real-life fitness activity like walking, tennis or jogging since they started playing the games. Additionally, 68 percent of people who play active-play video games say they are more physically active since they got involved in video games.

Inspired by these results, Nintendo and the American Heart Association are combining fun and fitness this holiday with “12 Days of Getting Active.” A series of daily tips starting today will help make it easy for people to get active, even when they are challenged with busy schedules and sweet temptations. The tips will be posted at http://www.activeplaynow.com, the joint American Heart Association-Nintendo online information center, and will focus on how active-play video games can get everyone in the family engaged in fun, physically active behavior leading into and through the New Year.

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Sakurai on the development cycle…

“On a personal level, Melee had an extremely grueling development cycle. Some of my other games did, too, but Melee sticks out far ahead of the pack in my mind. I worked on that game for 13 months straight, after all, without a single Sunday or holiday off that whole time. During parts of it, I was living a really destructive lifestyle — I’d work for over 40 hours in a row, then go back home to sleep for four.”

Sakurai on what drove him through his work…

“I seriously felt like a man on a mission. With the original [Nintendo 64] Smash Bros., there was no guarantee the game would be well-received at all — I had my hands full just trying to make it into the completely new sort of fighting game I had in mind. With Melee, though, the previous game did well enough that Nintendo and the character designers knew what I wanted in advance. And I wanted a lot. It was the biggest project I had ever led up to that point — the first game of mine on disc-based media, the first that used an orchestra for music, the first with ‘real’ polygon graphics. My staff was raring to go, and we plunged in full-tilt from the start. I pushed myself beyond any limit I could think of because I doubted I’d ever have this sheer amount of work in my hands ever again.”

Sakurai’s feelings of Melee today…

“Melee is the sharpest game in the series. It’s pretty speedy all around and asks a lot of your coordination skills. Fans of the first Smash Bros. got into it quickly, and it just felt really good to play.”

Sakurai regretting that Melee wasn’t more accessible…

“I had created Smash Bros. to be my response to how hardcore-exclusive the fighting game genre had become over the years. But why did I target it so squarely toward people well-versed in videogames, then? That’s why I tried to aim for more of a happy medium with Brawl’s play balance. There are three Smash Bros. games out now, but even if I ever had a chance at another one, I doubt we’ll ever see one that’s as geared toward hardcore gamers as Melee was. Melee fans who played deep into the game without any problems might have trouble understanding this, but Melee was just too difficult.”

Sakurai elaborating on accessibility…

“If we want new people from this generation of gamers to come in, then we need it accessible, simple, and playable by anyone. You can’t let yourself get preoccupied with nothing but gameplay and balance details. That’s where the core of the Smash Bros. concept lies, not on doggedly keeping the game the way it was before.”

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“Ikenie no Yoru”, (English: “Night of the Sacrifice”) a Wii-exclusive horror game upcoming from Marvelous Entertainment, was featured in Famitsu this past week, and it was revealed that the game would be using the Wii Balance Board as part of its gameplay.

In addition, the Wiimote is used to control a flashlight (something countless Wii games have used in the past), and the story follows 5 college students who have wandered into an old sacrificial building on a spooky night.

Edit: I’m not gonna lie; I was sort of going to brush this one off, but the screens actually look pretty creepy!

Via Andriasang

– Producer Masachika Kawata is also producing The Mercenaries 3D
– Another producer: Takayuki Hama
– Director: Koushi Nakanishi
– Takes place between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5
– Occurs after the actions of the BSAA anti bio-terror forces (just recently formed around 2005)
– Other BSAA members will be in the game in addition to Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine
– Prologue kicks off on a dark/stormy night out at sea
– Several BSAA soldiers approach a once great cruise ship
– The ship now appears to be like a ghost ship
– As they approach, Jill says to herself, “Surely, they are somewhere on this ship”
– The ship is the primary setting for the game
– Other environments as well
– Concept is to create a game that makes players a greater sense of fear
– “Classic style” of exploration/puzzle solving from the older RE games to the style of play featured in RE4 and beyond will be in Revelations
– Team is following a different path from the post RE4 series
– Kawata believes those titles placed the focus on an invigorating gameplay experience
– Emphasis this time is on fear and suspense
– Want to make players feel so scared they don’t want to move
– Won’t know where enemies will emerge
– Therefore players will need to slowly advance in fear of when something will pop out
– Enemies will pop up from unexpected directions
– Limited ammo
– True “survival horror” according to Nakanishi
– Dark inside the interior of the ship
– 3D output will give you a true feeling that there’s something in the depths of the halls
– Emphasis on horror because of the 3D
– Story designed for newcomers
– Nakanishi, when asked if the game will have connections with past RE titles, said they will it won’t be totally unrelated
– Team making the game so that newcomers will enjoy themselves
– Elements that fans will appreciate as well
– Move while your gun is equipped
– Freely move your viewpoint
– New play control feel
– New enemies
– Overall setting is in Europe
– TBA release date

Thanks to Thomas N for the tip!

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