Speaking with Daniel last night about video games. He enjoyed this article in the Sunday Times about Atari, its new leadership and funding, and the future of video games.

They say the future is bright for video games. I thought so back when I was 8 years old, playing Buck Rogers on my grandfather’s ColecoVision system. And I felt it again when I first played SSX 3 for The Playstation 2 last week.

Anyway, Daniel was speaking of ethics in video games, about how it’s all shooting things and blowing things up, and that maybe it’s time for some reform here. I don’t have children, so I don’t give a fuck, but lets presume that there is some sort of moral or ethical issue here, and the violence must end, and maybe we should be teaching something other than hand-eye coördination and how to obliterate the enemy.

Keeping that in mind, take a look at the typical video game system and its controller. The basic controller affords movement with the joystick (of your piece, or you, or your ship) and a few other actions (blow things up, accelerate, punch stuff, etc). It’s an elegant interface, but I think it limits the kinds of video games created.

My friends who play online RPG/strategy games (like Ultima Online) strongly prefer the keyboard and mouse over any other game controller because there’s a vast number of commands and modes in RPG games. So I think the gaming industry needs to augment the current platform with something that goes a little beyond the simple controller plus buttons we’ve used since the 80s. It’s time for a new interface.

Lets step back and look at the whole system, not just the controller, in an effort to get away from the status quo. One problem with current-day video game systems is that they make no attempt to bring players into eye contact with each other. In a 3 player video game, everyone stares at the screen and shoots wildly. If it’s a collaborative game, there may be some conversation about strategy, but otherwise it’s pretty much devoid of direct personal interaction.

I’d like to create a video game that isn’t time-limited and that involves eye direct contact between players. Something more like Chess or Scrabble—the kind of game you’d be comfortable playing with friends in a coffee shop.

Enter the digital gaming table. The initial model would have two “controllers” and a built-in flat panel (the table top). The controllers might have their own display (for Scrabble, card games, etc). I envision an interface that is solely about direct manipulation, so probably a touch screen or two is involved. Slide your finger across the table to move something, etc.

What I’d like to do next is start building a table and devloping game ideas simultaneously. I think the table should have a general enough interface to allow for a number of traditional board/card games (1-4 players), so development can work in parallel.

Do you have any ideas about the interface? That’s the biggest challenge, I think. Here are the requiprements:
- allow for games where each player has a private “hand.”
- facilitate direct manipulation of “pieces” if possible.
- keep the table surface flat, so it’s usable for reading the newspaper and drinking coffee, but keep the interface easy to get to when it’s needed.
- avoid cords if possible
- the touch screen either needs to be REALLY sturdy or kept away from the table top.
- is it possible to make a glass top table with a touch screen somehow built into the glass?
- the game board itself -could- be displayed via an LCD projector directly above the table.
- inspiration might come from Audiopad, though I don’t like little radio sensors that can get lost/stolen/eaten/broken.

There will be more to come on this topic…