Kinect Star Wars (2012)
Title: Main Jedi Designer
- Worked on Jedi Mode levels and gameplay systems
- Primary designer for whitebox and gameplay scripting for vertical slice level which helped to greenlight full production
- Cinematic Scripting for Kinect Star Wars footage shown at Cirque Du Soleil Kinect unveiling
- Gameplay Scripting for Bespin demo level presented on stage at Microsoft Conference during E3 2011
- Primary levels worked on in final game include Kashyyyk 1, Kashyyyk 2, Kashyyyk 6, and Providence 3
- Created numerous gameplay videos and mechanics demos to help communicate with publisher off-site
Levels
I was involved with Kinect Star Wars from the very beginning of the project, so there are numerous unreleased levels that were worked on for that project, including the initial prototype set in a hangar of the Invisible Hand, a level on Mos Eisley, two separate Theed levels used in a "green light" build to have the full project be approved, a level set on Kamino, and the Bespin E3 demo. This is in addition to all sorts of levels that didn't go past the brainstorming stage, and also a bunch of test levels used to experiment with new systems for the Jedi mode.
The items below are the levels that have been seen publicly.
The items below are the levels that have been seen publicly.
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Bespin - This level did not make it into the full game, but it was used at the 2011 Microsoft E3 Press conference, and also as a playable demo on the show floor. It was the first public showing of a playable Kinect Star Wars.
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Kashyyyk 2 - This is the second level of the game, which is used for movement and force training. As this was a Kinect game, the idea for movement training was to essentially make an "obstacle course" that the player could navigate through. The force training part of the level used a pre-existing asset for the gameplay space, and was intended to invoke memories of Luke and Yoda on Dagobah, including a nod to the ship lifting scene from The Empire Strikes Back
The video on the side shows one of the very first whiteboxes done for the movement tutorial level. |
Kashyyyk 6 - This level is part of the Trandoshan invasion of the Wookiee home planet, so it is definitely more intense and combat focused than the initial tutorial levels. It includes more background ships, explosions, scripted events, and more in-depth combat.
I included a picture of all the triggers, paths, ships, etc. that are involved in one short bridge section of the level, to give an idea of how many things are going on at any given time. |
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Providence 3 - This was an interior level I worked on that went through the full whitebox to final version process, and made it into the final game. Since this level had to be made in a short amount of time (this level was effectively made from scratch about 5-6 months before we shipped) we are able to make it quickly by keeping the scope reasonable, and dividing the rooms into roughly common legos that allowed us to build out the space quickly.
Though the gameplay space was a relatively straightforward design, we were able to set it apart by adding combat to a moving elevator (using the "move the outside world, and not the player space" trick), which allowed for a little bit of variation compared to the rest of the combat spaces in the game. The video shows some gameplay from December 2011, about 4 months before the game shipped. |
System Designs
I was the primary Jedi designer during the early stages of the project, and then a system designer came on later in the project to focus on AI. There were a ton of prototypes and system designs for the Jedi and the Jedi Mode, a lot of which was never actually used in-game. A lot of the development revolved around determining how much control the player would have over their character (since this was a Kinect-only game), so there was definitely a lot of experimenting, and playtesting involved. Between constantly playtesting new Jedi mechanics with Kinect, and also playtesting the levels I worked on with Kinect, I was probably in the best shape of my life while working on this game!
Some of my thoughts on motion control from working this project are detailed in an interview posted on gamasutra: Harnessing the power of motion control in video games.
Some screenshots and videos of test levels and mechanics are below:
Some of my thoughts on motion control from working this project are detailed in an interview posted on gamasutra: Harnessing the power of motion control in video games.
Some screenshots and videos of test levels and mechanics are below:
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Force Telekinesis - in the final game, it was mostly automated (no cursor on screen, and the game essentially picked a target for you to grab once you held your hand out). We did experiment with using a cursor to more directly select targets, similar to the standard Kinect cursor selection functionality.
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Jedi Movement - We also experimented with different movement types. The video shows two variants: one with a lock-on that automatically orients you towards your next target, and one where you have to manually rotate your shoulders to orient your character. It also provides a speed comparison to analog stick movement to indicate how fast one can get through a level with each movement method.
Movement essentially involved shifting your center of gravity forward, backwards, left, or right to make your character do the same. It effectively turned your body into an analog stick. In the final game, the "analog" aspect was removed, and all movement was done by specific gestures (quick leans in a direction to dodge or dash) |