The New Type of Dance?

Even though I’m not at E3, I’ve still been keeping up through Google Reader on the latest and coolest action there. One of the things that has been getting my eyes and ears ready for some epic epicness is the new game coming out for the Connect from Harmonix. It’s called Dance Central, and I’m pretty excited (as you can already tell).

Coming from the perspective of a long-time DDR and ITG player (check out the link to DDRecall at the bottom page if you would like proof), I’m excited for the opportunity to be able to exercise to some good music, but to also get other parts of my body involved in the action. While there’s nothing wrong with playing all of the 10s, 11s, 12s, and 13s in the normal arcade setting, the play does end up getting a little boring by oneself and just playing to test one’s own skills. Being able to incorporate the other limbs (I’ve gotten to play ParaPara Paradise before and really thought that it was cool to get the arms and legs involved!) presents a great opportunity for fun, the chance to incorporate other people into the fun, and also a way for players and families to push themselves for exercise. I think exergaming is a great way to have fun, get into shape, and provide the basis for a healthier life, and I would love to help design these games, as I’ve lost 60 pounds playing DDR and ITG (in the groove if you’re unsure of this acronym). I also hope that there will be awesome DLC to continue keeping the game fresh, along with combining multiple players through XBOX Live (as I wouldn’t mind encouraging any other players out there to exercise!). Even having the ability to record one’s own routine and possibly incorporating homemade music into the mix may also bring about an opportunity to bring people together through dance, gaming, and exercise.

With the advent of another music game, I still have some reservations about how the gameplay will be like. From my experience, “easy” and “medium” are pretty good exercise routines, mapping pretty well to the music, but “hard” and “expert” really challenge the player and put much more moves/steps in the chart than what most people expect/can handle. With this in mind, I hope there is a lot of playtesting to make sure that all of the moves map well to the music and don’t place many arbitrary “things” into the mix just to make things hard. Examples of these are: making notes not match the music (see “Two Weeks”, Drums Expert, Rock Band), making the scroll rate multiples faster/slower than what the actual music is rated (see any of the Maxes, DDR), or assuming that all music placed into the game will be in 4/4 (that’s a common time signature – see any songs by Rush/Soundgarden in Rock Band to see that asymmetric time signatures don’t work so well). These are the biggest aspects of the game that I think pull the player out of the experience of having fun and exercise, forcing the player to concentrate on the game aspect of the game, rather than enjoying the music and becoming a part of the experience for the audience and other performers (granted, for the hardcore, this is what the experience they want, but as someone who can play the tough stuff, it irks me to no end). That’s the type of play I’m hoping for in this game, and you can find me at the end of this year most likely playing it. I look forward to it, and exergaming with you, the reader, if you are up for some epic music and exercise.

I would also love the opportunity to be able to playtest it, but that doesn’t seem to be likely any time in the future. In the meantime, I’ll keep exercising in the gym and in the arcade to keep my weight down and tone my body for the next costumes I am making :D .

Have a great one!

(images from joystiq and destructoid)

xxxHolic / xxxHolic Kei

Another one of the anime series I finished watching and now be recommending to you are the 2 seasons of xxxHolic. While the title may have the adult characters XXX in them, this series is far from adult themed. On the contrary, it is mostly humor and Japanese-culture based.

The story follows protagonist Watanuki, a high schooler who is fed up with seeing strange spirits everywhere. On his way to school one day, he finds this mysterious fortuneteller and her store, and decides to go in. He wishes for the spirits to go away, and while he can’t see them anymore, his troubles are far from over, as he now has to work for the fortuneteller to work off this wish. The two other main characters, Doumeki and Himawari, also accompany him on his travels through Japan and the spirit worlds he gets roped into going. Watanuki also has to cook and do other chores for the fortuneteller, Yuuko, while proprietors come in and tell her about their troubles.

This series was very well done storywise, and has a very interesting artistic style – the arms and legs of all the characters are much longer in proportion to the rest of the body. The story left me wanting to know more about the culture of Japan, as it went in-depth about superstitions, cooking, and ghosts. It also even went into great depth on how to play Mahjong! The music and sound were pretty well done, but the aspect of this series I’ll remember most is how Watanuki’s mood can drop at the change of a hat – from swooning in love to great anger. The way he flails his arms and legs is quite funny as well (and is accompanied by a wonderful sound effect!).

It also left me putting a Mokona (the dancing animal in the video above) on my Christmas list, too. It kept getting drunk and wanting food – so funny. It put a big smile on my face.

Enjoy!

A Surprise Party

Last week, our HCI cohort decided to throw a surprise birthday party for one of our professors. We arranged for a surprise dance number, cake, presents, and the fun that would ensue for the night. Here are some pictures to bring this event to life again. Everyone had cake and was merry. Have fun with these pics.

The Other Side of Usability Testing

Experiencing it Remotely

A couple weeks ago, I qualified to be a part of a remote usability test for a site which was undergoing a redesign. The interesting factor for me was that I was not the one giving the test, and I wasn’t in the same room as the facilitator of the test. It first began with having to go to a special site and downloading a player where I could see the facilitator’s screen over the internet. Once I could see the screen, we began the test.

We first did the formalities, and then got into the meat of the study (test). I first given wireframes in black and white of what they wanted the site to look like (some of which were well designed, and others, not as much), and I was asked to perform simple tasks with the wireframes. Whenever I wanted to scroll down or go to a different page, I had to ask for the facilitator to switch the screen, as I had no control. At first, I was tempted to stay with whatever the facilitator showed me, but sometimes I wanted and needed to see what was below the fold and on other pages that I had to ask. It got easier each time to ask for this help.

Once I was done with the wireframes, I was asked to do some more tasks with wireframes marked up by web and graphic designers. Like so many times I have heard before, what was preached was true. I was only able to give superficial feedback on the “prettier” wireframes until I told myself to start looking at the interactions behind the prettiness. Only then was I able to give effective feedback for the team. This is a classic case of having a real life experience augment what is taught in the classroom.

Here are a couple of other important observations from this experience:

  1. Phone Quality Matters – not only was this done over the internet, but I was able to talk to the facilitator over the phone during the test. The room in which the facilitator was talking from had many echoes in it, making it hard for me sometimes to understand her.
  2. High Speed Internet – without this, the usability test would have taken hours instead of 45 minutes. Thanks, technology!
  3. Preparation and what actually happens – it is almost never the case that a facilitator can be truly prepared for everything a participant will want to see. Sometimes, I couldn’t see something because it didn’t pertain to the test, or it wasn’t mocked up yet.
  4. Language – the black and white mockups contained formal language, as did the facilitator. I can’t remember the language of the web designed mockups, but I am pretty sure they were more colloquial in manner.

Have a story from a usability test you would like to put up? Please do!