I’ve recently been designing a ResearchGame about the future at Research Through Gaming for an Academic Client. A future in which the player has to depict what they think 2030 will be like. This is a very tricky brief as from a design stand point, I don’t want to influence the player with themes of either Utopia or Distopia, and let’s be honest, it’s probably going to look a lot like now, but with added on bits of technology; at least that’s probably the best we can hope for.
I also thought this might be an interesting topic to talk about when it came to this month’s post on gaming. When looking at inspiration for this new ResearchGame, I studied many different visuals from the past that depicted the future and when it comes to gaming, there is something from the past that is beginning to ring true today – and it’s bloody exciting!
Back in the late 90’s, I remember watching a Star Trek themed programme on BBC2 in which a string of 90’s celebrities talked about the cool gadgets the show depicted. Communicators (now entirely usurped by smart phones) and transporters (sadly not to be in our life time; at least not the EasyTransporter version within all our holidaying budgets) were applauded for their vision, however, when Shaun Ryder and Kermit of the band, Black Grape noted that by far, the greatest invention to ever come out of those shows was the Holo-Deck, I had to agree.
Created as a recreational room for crew members bored of alien attacks and new planets to explore (there must have been the odd slow week here and there), the Holo-Deck was a grid-deco room that could be transformed into just about any place, in any time and of any size (not sure how crew members didn’t bump into the walls every twenty feet, but that’s 24th Century technology for you). It not only allowed the writers to boldly go wherever they liked, but the characters too. “If we had something as capable as that now” said the suspiciously-under-the-influence Ryder, “..drug abuse would go down by 100%.” Strangely those comments have always stuck with me.
Star Trek, the original series and then twenty years later, Star Trek the Next Generation have been fantastically accurate at predicting some of the gadgets we have ended up using today. In fact, more than predict, they have inspired the generations of techies that grew up to revolutionize our existing technologies. Only recently, Amit Singhal, Google Vice-President and Senior Search Engineer, said that the company has been inspired by the sci-fi series to develop a “ubiquitous computing” concept, where gadgets woven into users’ daily lives seamlessly respond to questions. This is just one example of such inspiration. From smart phones, to touch screen technology and now, tablets even, Star Trek’s writers and Visual Artists have had more to do with drawing the blueprint of future technology than you would believe (personally, I’m still waiting on doors that go ‘shhht’ when you open and close them, but here’s hoping). And although some visions of future technology still seem ‘light years’ away, some of the more unfathomable are seemingly coming to fruition.
In 2013, we are living in the early years of Smart Glass technology. Augmented Reality is now hands-free and available in 360 degrees and whilst Google is keen to show us the lifestyle benefits (and commercial ones see this nice spoof of the Google Glass viral) of such a device, personally, I cannot wait to see what it brings to the gaming world.
When Sony delivered their PS4 press conference late last month, I was slightly underwhelmed by the lack of Augmented Reality-ness when the key features were announced. Rumours had been flying around about their own A.R. glasses and I was keen to see what this would add to their gaming experience and my own. I guess we’ll have to sit tight on what they have planned.
Microsoft Research, however (those geniuses behind the original Kinect), are not remaining so tight lipped about their future plans and where Google and Sony have failed to deliver so far, they have made a particularly shiny and very much ad-like promo for how they intend to produce a gaming platform for augmented reality.
The Illumiroom is a concept that might well be ready when or within the first few years of the next Xbox console. It uses the Kinect sensor to capture the geometry and layout of your room, and then this data is used to adapt extra visuals that are projected against the walls and furniture around your TV. Holo-Deck, here we come. Can you imagine a GTA street projected across your entire wall? Or a Star Wars game in which the universe is painted over your entire room?
Think of the games we’ll play, the experiences we will be able to create, from Role Play Adventures to ResearchGames; this future is closer than you think.
NOTE: The whole (and hilarious) interview with Shaun Ryder and Kermit can be found below. Warning: does contain expletives.