Posts Tagged ‘lionhead studios’
From a four-by-four pixel face, to a loyal pooch, to an inquisitive youth — that’s the path Peter Molyneux has taken in his quest to find life within technology. “Right, can we dare to create a character which anybody interacting with that character would truly believe was alive?” the renowned designer recently asked attendees of the annual BAFTA Video Game Lecture (transcribed by The Guardian).
Harnessing the motion-sensitive camera in Microsoft’s Project Natal, Molyneux hopes to breathe that life into a young boy — or girl! — named Milo (or Millie!). While he admits that much of it is “smoke and mirrors and tricks,” he provided some interesting insight into the technology put to use behind the scenes. It seems Milo won’t just recognize you (his imaginary, otherworldly friend), but everyday objects as well. “Firstly the process of scanning is really lovely, you just reach your arm up, you can also scan in three dimensional objects, for example if you are eating an apple you can give that apple to Milo and he will carry on eating the apple,” the Lionhead lead explained. But will Milo scan candy held aloft by strangers?
“Or the other thing that is amazing about this technology and this is the online portion of inspiration, we are collecting continuing to collect and improve his object recognition skills.” If his plans come to fruition, Molyneux envisions “all the Milos that will be released” feeding their observations into a centralized recognition of “everything in the world.”
To Skynet alarmists: Have you seen this boy?
Molyneux: Milo will boast collective object recognition, accept half-eaten fruit originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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"And obviously what would probably happen if I started talking about this is you would see a little red dot appear moving on my forehead," Molyneux continued. "And then as I would start to speak the words then there would be a shotgun fire, and I would be assassinated. Quite clearly, it is that sensitive." But not so sensitive that he can't quite nearly confirm it in the next breath.
"Do you really think, knowing me, as maybe you do over the years, I wouldn't want to use something like Natal? I mean, that's just mad, man." Let's just lay it out here: The guy responsible for basically the only known Natal project is going to put some Natal segments in Fable 3. We all know this. It's going to happen. Try to look surprised when it's announced at whichever trade show next year.
[Via IGN]
Natal in Fable 3 hinted by a paranoid Molyneux originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Microsoft Game Studios’ corporate vice president, Phil Spencer, doesn’t seem like the easily startled type. In fact, on the list of things that wouldn’t catch him off guard, the incorporation of Project Natal into a high-profile, Xbox 360-exclusive franchise probably doesn’t sit very high. Perhaps a few spots below lots of people buying a new Halo game.
During a Tokyo Game Show interview (look for the full transcript soon), Spencer told Joystiq that the innovation fostered inside Lionhead Studios made it a good match for Microsoft’s forthcoming motion control system. “You know, Lionhead’s been a real innovation studio for us,” he said. “We have the release of Fable 2 episodic this week, where they’re taking Fable 2 and breaking it up into chunks, allowing people to buy the content at their pace. Fable 2, I thought, was a great release, with the orbs they added with Live, adding new functionality to the franchise. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Natal found its way into future iterations of Fable.”
Whether or not motion functionality will show up in 2010′s Fable 3 is a matter of speculation, though your role as king in that game would certainly lend itself to some interesting … regal maneuvers. Waving your hand to permanently dispense with an annoying peasant? That’s our kind of role playing.
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer easily envisions Fable, Natal crossover originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


