Posted on 10/16/2009 11:31:07 AM PDT by ShadowAce
If you were ever asked about innovation in controller design you may mention the introduction of the SNES pad, maybe the first DualShock controller, or more recently the revolution that was the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. But new controllers don’t always have to be forward thinking and a new indie game called Firefly is taking a distinctively different approach to game input.
Rather than using a keyboard, mouse, joypad, joystick, racing wheel, or motion control, the developer has turned to a much cheaper alternative – candlelight. That’s right, Firefly is the first game as far as I know that takes input from a burning candle held by the player.
The game has been developed on an EEE PC 1000h using Linux and a webcam. Windows has been bypassed as the developer, only known by his YouTube name sosker, says the webcam driver for Windows is just too slow to make the game possible.
The idea is you use the candlelight to light the way for a firefly that has lost its sparkle which then travels by following the path you light through a series of cavern passageways. Other than that very little is known about the game, but check out the video above to get a better idea of how it works.
The description of the YouTube page has sosker give the reason behind doing the game:
The idea of this game is to show that you can use quite a medieval tool to control a game, and one that you can get for 35636575 times cheaper than Weeemote.
Read more at IndieGames.com and thanks to Phil Fish
Matthew’s Opinion
The game was first found by Phil Fish of Polytron Corporation, which is currently developing Fez and it clearly caught his attention like it has ours. It is certainly an unusual approach and a new way to think about game input. There are obviously some downsides such as the potential to spill hot wax all over your hand, but then it is also a novel use of old and relatively new tech together. You could also view the hot wax as a feature of the game you have to deal with.
One of the selling points of motion controllers is the fact they allow you to perform the actions as you would in real life so it gives a more realistic experience. In reality it doesn’t always work out that way, but sosker has followed the same train of thought if you think about it. If you were navigating around a pitch black cavern then you need light and unless you have a torch the next best thing is a candle.
Obviously we won’t be seeing any games bundled with candles on store shelves, but if nothing else this shows you that technology, old and new, can always be taken in new directions offering the player a very different experience. It’s also quite a novelty that this game, if it ever sees a release, will need a special controller, but it won’t cost me nearly as much as a game to buy it.
LOL
Reminds me of my 3D controller based on sound, using microphones to pick up the location of a handheld “buzzer” (much cheaper than cameras back then—and safer than the candle! :-)
hehehe
You mean a "without a candle," perhaps?
That would be fun with the game Firefly: Inara. ;-) [Candles okay, but not necessarily hand-held...]
Maybe...
mac/toysight: http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2003/12/toysight/
use your arms, and make a rat-a-tat sound to fire the gun (in one demo game I played). hilarious...esp to watch someone else flailing and making machine-gun noises to play...
“tank-etty-tank-etty-tank...”
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