Captain
08-04-2008, 12:44 PM
Ryan wonders why cricket is missing on Wii, and ponders the possibilities of such a game taking advantage of the console's functionality.
How many of us thought cricket when the Wii was first released? I know I certainly did, even though the last time I was out on the electronic pitch was way back with the SNES and the Super International Cricket series. The Wii Remote is the perfect shape and the entire concept around Nintendo's latest console is motion control. Surely a sensational recipe for sports games, more specifically cricket. So with a console well past it's one year mark and with the largest install base - what gives?
Where the hell is 'Wii LOVE CRICKET'?!
I didn’t want to get bogged down writing this article with the almost clichéd lines of how Nintendo aren’t supporting third parties enough, or how the Wii is so centred on vying for the casual market. Alas, I have to, because frankly when ever new possibilities are discussed for the Wii you just can’t avoid it. My bitching will be down to a minimum though I assure you.What I will focus mainly on is breaking down the positives and possibilities. The way I think this game could be developed if publishers are scared or confused about how to ‘do’ cricket on the Wii, what I think would and wouldn’t work and why out-of-house developers need to pad up and get to the crease.
http://www.youtube.com/v/fZ4OZ8xget0&hl=en
An old site by A-N members echoing my sentiments "Wii Want Cricket"First Stop
Before any of that though, would a cricket game sell? Is there a following for cricket in Australia or that matter the world? The obvious answer is yes. Cricket is a massively popular international game enjoyed by millions of viewers every year. Leading sports titles sell well; you only have to look at the sales of FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, Tiger Woods or Fight Night to see that. These various franchises receive their yearly patches, umm I mean sequels, for a reason even if they don’t always score that highly in critical reviews. On that note, the various cricket games in the market place at the moment like Ricky Pointing’s Cricket by Codemasters, or Cricket 07 by EA have been pretty straight forward deliveries that follow the predictable mechanics of their predecessors. While the International Cricket scene continues to develop and provide excitement with shocking test match defeats, the new and marvellous 20/20 format and of course enough tabloid text messages to keep Vodafone in business; we gamers are left with a dusty pitch of low scoring half baked rehashes. Old Richie would be rolling in his grave... That's if he were dead of course.
We are talking about the Wii for a reason mind you and not only is its design perfect for us budding batsmen (or women) but the audience is ideal to boot. Cricket fans as already stated are not treated to a buffet of high quality titles, so a bit of a revolution is in order. The ironic thing about all of this is that the Wii is so well made for a game featuring a bat as its main tool, it's just not cricket that development studios haven't lapped this concept up. In fact, while getting this feature ready I took the liberty of contacting three major game manufacturers. Those being; EA, Codemasters and Activision. On visiting each website I eventually discovered their contact details and attempted to email the relevant area to find out if anyone was secretly rustling up a veritable delight of bats, stumps, six stitchers and a liberal dab of motion control. My email went something like:
Hi Codemastes/EA/Activision
I was wondering if you are developing a cricket game for the Wii?
If not, why?
Regards
Ryan Scougall
Of course with each of these being huge professional gaming enterprises I knew that at least one of them had to be making headway into what was surely a revitalisation of a franchise that now had the opportunity for a good dose of performance enhancing game-play pumped into it. Ah not quite - I was lucky enough to get a response from only one, being EA. They told me I was talking to the wrong area and needed to try a different department. Hey at least they had the decency to get back to me!
Designing something captivating, spellbinding and just plain marvellous!
Alright, so maybe no one is working on anything. Queue in the doctor of game design! (Note: That would be me.)
While I haven't done a PhD in game construction or even walked into a development studio, I can tell you one thing for sure: us cricketers are a pretty serious bunch. It might be all beer and BBQs on the back deck with your mates, but once someone pulls out a tennis ball and bat, even dear old grandad is fair game. Every match of backyard cricket has a set of rules and guidelines; electric wickey', one hand one bounce, fence on the full is a 6, house on the full you're out, mum's rose garden and you may as well jump the back fence. You all know what I'm talking about. All's fair in love, war and backyard cricket. So why am I yammering on about this so much? Because a console based cricket game needs to follow these same principles. Anyone who is an avid fan of Tony Greg and Richie Benaud doesn't sit there watching the same slow motion replay of a ball gingerly bouncing off the pitch, missing the stumps and being retrieved by the keeper four hundred million times a match while sipping an ice cold for nothing. Okay maybe it is for nothing, but the fact is we are a bunch of anal bastards - we love the fine detail of the game.
Design principle one: Make sure full 'one-to-one' motion control is integrated. This is an absolute must and is a sorely missed feature in almost all games, not just sports. Cricket needs to be targeted towards cricket lovers and as such we won't settle for gimmicky waggle control so apparent in much of the shovel-ware we get fed every other day. This doesn't mean developers have to make a strict simulation of the sport, but a close approximation of the natural swing of a bat, rotation of an arm for bowling and throwing mechanic for fielding require this be implemented seriously. The Wii cannot compare with the competition in the visual department, an area so many sports games tragically rely too heavily on for sales, that it has to differentiate itself with a superior control scheme. Am I just making this up, or was that the whole point of the Wii in the first place?
Rumor has run that developers are struggling to effectively integrate full 'one-to-one' motion control in games and this could be why we haven't seen much of it. Wii Sports Bowling is really the closest we've come to something that's pretty much got it right. WeLove Golf also looks like it's teeing off in the right direction, I totally believe cricket can do it too.
In fact I believe this should be pushed so far as to use both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk integrated for batting and bowling. The question is though, how do you do it? There is a thick white cable that connects the two control devices together. This isn't sounding bat like in the slightest.
Design principle two: Sell the game with a bat bundled in. I know a portion of you would be thinking there are so many crappy steering wheels, golf clubs and tennis racquets out there already that putting a bat into the bag won't make things any better. Normally you'd be right, but in this case I couldn't disagree more. Just as Guitar Hero spurred life into a dwindling peripheral market dominated by force-feedback steering wheels for the hardcore racer, a foam bat with a couple of holes can clench the series for Wii Love Cricket. The real importance of this peripheral relates into design principle one and 'one-to-one' motion control. I have a hunch that game developers have struggled so much with integrating this feature because of the limits of our beloved little white box. I know this will be hard to admit for some of us, but the motion control on the Wii is far from perfect. There is lag, there are issues with it interpreting movement properly and I'm sure we've all seen the exploitation of the quick Wii Remote flick over full arm motions in games like Wii Sports Baseball and Bowling. My answer to this (I can not back up in the slightest) is to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk together. Combine both of their accelerometers and positional sensors to produce a more accurate picture for the Wii to interpret. The bat will have a cavity in the handle for the Wii Remote to sit in face-up and the base of the bat will have another hole for the nun-chuck to be seated. Safe, snug and providing a subtle weight balance with each device sitting at one extreme of the bat.
The reason the Wii Remote is sitting face up is so that the person in bat can access the D-Pad to assist with shot selection. I know this sounds like I'm flying in the face of everything I've already said regarding motion control, but there is a method to my madness. If you can narrow the scope of what movement needs to be analysed by the Wii you can improve that 'one-to-one' integration even more. If I hit right on the D-Pad which means I will be performing a cover drive movement for argument's sake, the Wii now only has to expect the controller to be swung in a particular trajectory and 3D space. If I as a batsman swing outside that scope, the Wii will know and thus my stroke will be poor. This could result in me being bowled, or nicking it to the keeper, perhaps even just scoring two runs instead of making a boundary.
I could go on further, but I figure by now if you don't get the picture I'm just explaining things poorly. The whole idea is that with 'one-to-one' movement developers make sure they provide the tools for us as the player to accurately and naturally do this - the bat peripheral - and for the tech to follow with believable and fluent efficiency.
While I am talking on the batting heavily here, the same design concepts apply to bowling/fielding. I would imagine you could Velcro the Wii Remote to your upper arm and hold the Nunchuk in your hand. From here you would perform the usual bowling motion in a combination of button presses to deliver flippers and googlies to your hearts content.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/883/miicricketvd8.jpg
You'd be amazed who you see on the pitch these days
Design principal three: Rip off FIFA Street 3's artistic approach. Okay, so don't say that in your artistic design pro forma because you'll likely get sued by EA. Then again EA, if you're listening, rip-off your own game and use the same graphical format. Codemasters and Activision, you get the idea. Creating a fun, light and recognisable bunch of characters will appeal to both the avid fan and the casual observer. This will also hide the graphical limitations of the Wii, without thwarting the gameplay principles I've discussed. Use motion capture to get all those bowling, batting and fielding animations fluent as well as fitting with the respective idiosyncrasies of all our cricket legends. Finally, ensure you get the crowd with all the 'Mexican Waves', team chants and just raw emotion of one the best sports on the planet.
Where to from here?
Well now the basics are on paper, so to speak, developers have to suck it up and step out onto the field. I guarantee you if someone spent the time and money this project deserves it would sell well. There isn't some monolithic giant blocking the path. It is not like making a Tiger Woods game for the Wii where you have an established highly successful franchise swinging away on the PS3 and 360. In fact EA already had a stab with the Madden franchise back in '07 and did an admirable job. Why not take the same risk in an open market of relative cricket freedom? This could be a win-win for both Nintendo and a third party development studio with the appeal for a game spanning to both the 'hardcore' and casual player. It's got the hallmarks of a similar fan base to Guitar Hero with the following, at least in Australia, of an avid cricketing nation.
I don't care if you steal these ideas from directly under my nose. Developers just get out there and make Wii LOVE CRICKET!
For anyone who's interested I have posted a couple of extremely dodgy videos to YouTube about some design ideas on how to make the peripherals, bowling, fielding etc but never got around to integrating all the snippets into one movie. If you're bored out of your brain look up 'ryan wii love cricket'. You'll see yours truly looking like a tool swinging a foam bat around.
By Ryan Scougall / squeegie
How many of us thought cricket when the Wii was first released? I know I certainly did, even though the last time I was out on the electronic pitch was way back with the SNES and the Super International Cricket series. The Wii Remote is the perfect shape and the entire concept around Nintendo's latest console is motion control. Surely a sensational recipe for sports games, more specifically cricket. So with a console well past it's one year mark and with the largest install base - what gives?
Where the hell is 'Wii LOVE CRICKET'?!
I didn’t want to get bogged down writing this article with the almost clichéd lines of how Nintendo aren’t supporting third parties enough, or how the Wii is so centred on vying for the casual market. Alas, I have to, because frankly when ever new possibilities are discussed for the Wii you just can’t avoid it. My bitching will be down to a minimum though I assure you.What I will focus mainly on is breaking down the positives and possibilities. The way I think this game could be developed if publishers are scared or confused about how to ‘do’ cricket on the Wii, what I think would and wouldn’t work and why out-of-house developers need to pad up and get to the crease.
http://www.youtube.com/v/fZ4OZ8xget0&hl=en
An old site by A-N members echoing my sentiments "Wii Want Cricket"First Stop
Before any of that though, would a cricket game sell? Is there a following for cricket in Australia or that matter the world? The obvious answer is yes. Cricket is a massively popular international game enjoyed by millions of viewers every year. Leading sports titles sell well; you only have to look at the sales of FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, Tiger Woods or Fight Night to see that. These various franchises receive their yearly patches, umm I mean sequels, for a reason even if they don’t always score that highly in critical reviews. On that note, the various cricket games in the market place at the moment like Ricky Pointing’s Cricket by Codemasters, or Cricket 07 by EA have been pretty straight forward deliveries that follow the predictable mechanics of their predecessors. While the International Cricket scene continues to develop and provide excitement with shocking test match defeats, the new and marvellous 20/20 format and of course enough tabloid text messages to keep Vodafone in business; we gamers are left with a dusty pitch of low scoring half baked rehashes. Old Richie would be rolling in his grave... That's if he were dead of course.
We are talking about the Wii for a reason mind you and not only is its design perfect for us budding batsmen (or women) but the audience is ideal to boot. Cricket fans as already stated are not treated to a buffet of high quality titles, so a bit of a revolution is in order. The ironic thing about all of this is that the Wii is so well made for a game featuring a bat as its main tool, it's just not cricket that development studios haven't lapped this concept up. In fact, while getting this feature ready I took the liberty of contacting three major game manufacturers. Those being; EA, Codemasters and Activision. On visiting each website I eventually discovered their contact details and attempted to email the relevant area to find out if anyone was secretly rustling up a veritable delight of bats, stumps, six stitchers and a liberal dab of motion control. My email went something like:
Hi Codemastes/EA/Activision
I was wondering if you are developing a cricket game for the Wii?
If not, why?
Regards
Ryan Scougall
Of course with each of these being huge professional gaming enterprises I knew that at least one of them had to be making headway into what was surely a revitalisation of a franchise that now had the opportunity for a good dose of performance enhancing game-play pumped into it. Ah not quite - I was lucky enough to get a response from only one, being EA. They told me I was talking to the wrong area and needed to try a different department. Hey at least they had the decency to get back to me!
Designing something captivating, spellbinding and just plain marvellous!
Alright, so maybe no one is working on anything. Queue in the doctor of game design! (Note: That would be me.)
While I haven't done a PhD in game construction or even walked into a development studio, I can tell you one thing for sure: us cricketers are a pretty serious bunch. It might be all beer and BBQs on the back deck with your mates, but once someone pulls out a tennis ball and bat, even dear old grandad is fair game. Every match of backyard cricket has a set of rules and guidelines; electric wickey', one hand one bounce, fence on the full is a 6, house on the full you're out, mum's rose garden and you may as well jump the back fence. You all know what I'm talking about. All's fair in love, war and backyard cricket. So why am I yammering on about this so much? Because a console based cricket game needs to follow these same principles. Anyone who is an avid fan of Tony Greg and Richie Benaud doesn't sit there watching the same slow motion replay of a ball gingerly bouncing off the pitch, missing the stumps and being retrieved by the keeper four hundred million times a match while sipping an ice cold for nothing. Okay maybe it is for nothing, but the fact is we are a bunch of anal bastards - we love the fine detail of the game.
Design principle one: Make sure full 'one-to-one' motion control is integrated. This is an absolute must and is a sorely missed feature in almost all games, not just sports. Cricket needs to be targeted towards cricket lovers and as such we won't settle for gimmicky waggle control so apparent in much of the shovel-ware we get fed every other day. This doesn't mean developers have to make a strict simulation of the sport, but a close approximation of the natural swing of a bat, rotation of an arm for bowling and throwing mechanic for fielding require this be implemented seriously. The Wii cannot compare with the competition in the visual department, an area so many sports games tragically rely too heavily on for sales, that it has to differentiate itself with a superior control scheme. Am I just making this up, or was that the whole point of the Wii in the first place?
Rumor has run that developers are struggling to effectively integrate full 'one-to-one' motion control in games and this could be why we haven't seen much of it. Wii Sports Bowling is really the closest we've come to something that's pretty much got it right. WeLove Golf also looks like it's teeing off in the right direction, I totally believe cricket can do it too.
In fact I believe this should be pushed so far as to use both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk integrated for batting and bowling. The question is though, how do you do it? There is a thick white cable that connects the two control devices together. This isn't sounding bat like in the slightest.
Design principle two: Sell the game with a bat bundled in. I know a portion of you would be thinking there are so many crappy steering wheels, golf clubs and tennis racquets out there already that putting a bat into the bag won't make things any better. Normally you'd be right, but in this case I couldn't disagree more. Just as Guitar Hero spurred life into a dwindling peripheral market dominated by force-feedback steering wheels for the hardcore racer, a foam bat with a couple of holes can clench the series for Wii Love Cricket. The real importance of this peripheral relates into design principle one and 'one-to-one' motion control. I have a hunch that game developers have struggled so much with integrating this feature because of the limits of our beloved little white box. I know this will be hard to admit for some of us, but the motion control on the Wii is far from perfect. There is lag, there are issues with it interpreting movement properly and I'm sure we've all seen the exploitation of the quick Wii Remote flick over full arm motions in games like Wii Sports Baseball and Bowling. My answer to this (I can not back up in the slightest) is to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk together. Combine both of their accelerometers and positional sensors to produce a more accurate picture for the Wii to interpret. The bat will have a cavity in the handle for the Wii Remote to sit in face-up and the base of the bat will have another hole for the nun-chuck to be seated. Safe, snug and providing a subtle weight balance with each device sitting at one extreme of the bat.
The reason the Wii Remote is sitting face up is so that the person in bat can access the D-Pad to assist with shot selection. I know this sounds like I'm flying in the face of everything I've already said regarding motion control, but there is a method to my madness. If you can narrow the scope of what movement needs to be analysed by the Wii you can improve that 'one-to-one' integration even more. If I hit right on the D-Pad which means I will be performing a cover drive movement for argument's sake, the Wii now only has to expect the controller to be swung in a particular trajectory and 3D space. If I as a batsman swing outside that scope, the Wii will know and thus my stroke will be poor. This could result in me being bowled, or nicking it to the keeper, perhaps even just scoring two runs instead of making a boundary.
I could go on further, but I figure by now if you don't get the picture I'm just explaining things poorly. The whole idea is that with 'one-to-one' movement developers make sure they provide the tools for us as the player to accurately and naturally do this - the bat peripheral - and for the tech to follow with believable and fluent efficiency.
While I am talking on the batting heavily here, the same design concepts apply to bowling/fielding. I would imagine you could Velcro the Wii Remote to your upper arm and hold the Nunchuk in your hand. From here you would perform the usual bowling motion in a combination of button presses to deliver flippers and googlies to your hearts content.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/883/miicricketvd8.jpg
You'd be amazed who you see on the pitch these days
Design principal three: Rip off FIFA Street 3's artistic approach. Okay, so don't say that in your artistic design pro forma because you'll likely get sued by EA. Then again EA, if you're listening, rip-off your own game and use the same graphical format. Codemasters and Activision, you get the idea. Creating a fun, light and recognisable bunch of characters will appeal to both the avid fan and the casual observer. This will also hide the graphical limitations of the Wii, without thwarting the gameplay principles I've discussed. Use motion capture to get all those bowling, batting and fielding animations fluent as well as fitting with the respective idiosyncrasies of all our cricket legends. Finally, ensure you get the crowd with all the 'Mexican Waves', team chants and just raw emotion of one the best sports on the planet.
Where to from here?
Well now the basics are on paper, so to speak, developers have to suck it up and step out onto the field. I guarantee you if someone spent the time and money this project deserves it would sell well. There isn't some monolithic giant blocking the path. It is not like making a Tiger Woods game for the Wii where you have an established highly successful franchise swinging away on the PS3 and 360. In fact EA already had a stab with the Madden franchise back in '07 and did an admirable job. Why not take the same risk in an open market of relative cricket freedom? This could be a win-win for both Nintendo and a third party development studio with the appeal for a game spanning to both the 'hardcore' and casual player. It's got the hallmarks of a similar fan base to Guitar Hero with the following, at least in Australia, of an avid cricketing nation.
I don't care if you steal these ideas from directly under my nose. Developers just get out there and make Wii LOVE CRICKET!
For anyone who's interested I have posted a couple of extremely dodgy videos to YouTube about some design ideas on how to make the peripherals, bowling, fielding etc but never got around to integrating all the snippets into one movie. If you're bored out of your brain look up 'ryan wii love cricket'. You'll see yours truly looking like a tool swinging a foam bat around.
By Ryan Scougall / squeegie