http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/24284
On Saturday, 16 October, I had the opportunity to visit Rare Ltd. for the first ever Kinect Sports Community Day. The event was organised so that several Xbox Community websites and local Rare fan sites would have a chance to play Kinect Sports at Rare's home before launch. What was a Nintendo site doing at a Kinect Sports games day? Well, actually, I won a random Twitter drawing. This also gave me a chance to proclaim, "I'm the contest winner" all day long.
Rare's HQ is somewhat of a trek, so I was up before dawn and on my way to take a tram, a train, a tube, a train, and a train to the designated meeting point. A wide-awake and somehow not cold in just a t-shirt (whereas I'd been freezing since around train three with four layers of clothing) Ben from the community team was there to meet us for the bus to Rare. The bus drove past fields, sheep, cows, and even a quarry before we reached the gate. Even at the gate, there was some distance to go before we reached the entrance to Rare's building.
(1) The fourth train of the day
(2) Many a field was passed on the way to Twycross
(3) Sheepy Magna is the way to go
My first thought was that, it looks just like the pictures. I didn't manage to take any of the exterior myself, actually, so I'm including a stock photo for reference. Such photos have been up on Rare's website for years, and reused on reports since then, so they are very familiar.
The shiny exterior, on a sunnier day than when we arrived
My next thought was, "Dinosaur Planet?!" as there was a prominently displayed statue in the lobby area. The rest of the lobby's awards and games we've seen before, but I did make the effort to lie on the floor and take a picture of the spectacular banner, a gift from Nintendo.
(1) Sabre from the real Dinosaur Planet
(2) Every Rare game ever made
(3) Secret Space Invaders hide in Nintendo's gift
After signing in and making our way to the canteen, which would be hosting many of the day's activities, the first thing on the agenda was name labels - for everyone, not just our hosts from Rare. I wrote my name down and went to find a seat to set down my things while we waited for the introductory talk to begin. I discovered that I was sitting next to Rareware Archives and stopped and talked about the day so far before walking around a little to parade my Conker t-shirt. I also had a few minutes to catch up with Tom, Rare software engineer, and one of the people who got me started writing about games way back then.
(1) Jet Force Gemini in the corridor
(2) Bad Fur Day in the corridor
(3) A Sports mascot on one of the day's signs
The day officially began with an introductory talk on the agenda for the day, which had us in the canteen, the above corridor, and the demo area at the other end of the corridor for the various activities. Signs were put up so that no one would wander off and accidentally find out about top secret projects, with the comment that they must have put too much effort into it if people were taking pictures of the toilet signs. Then, a few of the Sports developers, with help from the audience, demonstrated some of the games in Kinect Sports. We ran through the main game mode's Track and Field event, with the 100m Sprint, Long Jump, Discus, and Javelin among the included sports. Finally, there were a couple of rounds of bowling, where I was called upon and scored a strike for my efforts, and then the presentation concluded, and we went back down the corridor to the testing room, which was ready for free play of Sports.
Demonstrating Sports
(1)Other end of the corridor, just like in the pictures
(2) Live and Reloaded in the corridor
(3) Concept art for Natal Sports
The testing room had been decked out with balloons for the occasion. It used to be full of desks, but as Kinect testing requires more space the testers were spread out here and there around the rest of the building. Most testing now takes place at their new Birmingham facility, fortunate as I found whenever things got intense in the Track and Field events involving running, it would sound like there was an earthquake in the room.
Nine Kinect Sports stations were set up, and with help from the friendly Rare staff who had volunteered on their day off, everyone tried out a few sports and mini games. They continued milling around to help set up the games when no one could decide what they wanted to play, answered questions, and gave gameplay tips and demos. I took the opportunity to present Leigh L., website editor and creator of Mr. Pants, as well as most patient question answerer in the world, with a gift.
(1) Sign for the Gameplay area
(2) More corridor shenanigans
(3) Balloons!
Here, I had a go at the various mini games, which are quick to play and anyone can walk up and start playing. The only calibration that is needed at all is at the very beginning before the game starts, and you wouldn't see this screen unless the game was restarted for some reason. For the calibration, it is helpful to have people in the background move away while it finds the distance between you and the game. Otherwise, the flurry of background activity during the day didn't affect the game at all. The only times the game would stop is if you were too close or too far away from the Kinect, which did happen as people weren't used to running exactly on the spot and tended to drift forward. The prescribed six to eight feet was the optimum distance. Tracking of arms and legs worked very well, with no noticeable lag, and I did notice improvements on Hurdles since the E3 build, there have been tweaks and small changes for the recognition to work as you'd expect it to. Most of the games are turn based, but some had two players at once. Up to four players can play in this fashion, and all multiplayer modes can be played over Xbox Live.
Game room from above
My first game was a target defence activity, with footballs (soccer) coming at my on-screen avatar, with the goal to deflect as many balls as possible. It was time-limited, with an extra ten seconds added to the clock whenever you reached ten balls returned. The footballs were blocked and fell slowly when they hit an inactive part of the avatar, but if I hit the projectiles back by swinging at them they'd bounce away satisfyingly. I scored a reasonable 38, but was then informed that the developers easily reach 100+.
Volleyball was interesting since as well as aiming for the targets to hit the ball back, you have the opportunity for jump shots to spike the ball and win the point. Another volleyball game has you returning the shots with a specific part of your body. The game announces and gives an indication on the target of whether your head, hand, or foot is required and you have to move around to hit the ball back with the correct body part.
Several of the sports have "frantic" events, where the goal is to return as many balls as possible, avoid being hit for as long as possible or hit as many pins as possible, under the same time-limiting as described earlier. Of all of the sports, only Table Tennis might have felt more realistic with a bat, but with so many of the sports involving throwing motions and running, the fewer real things held the better.
As well as the mini games there are six sports in the main mode with single, co-op (if relevant), and competitive play, making the game a complete experience. Obviously there's more to it than Wii Sports, with that being a four year old game now.
(1) Football mini game
(2) More Natal Sports artwork
(3) Xbox development units
After our practice time, we were called to go back along the corridor for lunch in the Rare canteen. Various items were on offer including pizza, burgers, chicken, wraps, and cakes, where the consensus was that one cake was not enough but two was far too much. During this time videos posted on Rare's website for Kinect Sports played on the projector used for the earlier demonstrations. Robin Beanland, Head of Music and celebrity appearance of the day, was seen drifting around the canteen area.
(1) Rare canteen as a Sports demo area
(2) View from Rare canteen
(3) More corridor signs
Lunch concluded, and the group was divided into teams for the afternoon's Party Play tournament. Teams were set up and divided into two groups of four teams, where each team played every other team. The highest scoring teams then went up against each other to result in two teams advancing to the final round.
Each round of Party Play consists of six random choices from the selection of mini games. The teams, tracked by the game as the Red Team and Blue Team, take turns on a variety of the turn-based and head-to-head games, scoring points along the way. The final round is always a head-to-head sport, such as table tennis, boxing, or sprinting, and worth double points. This means that any number of people could play in a team, and you'd just need to split the room in half to start a session.
During the Party Play showdown Robin Beanland drifted into the room once again, and some Rare fans took their turns to say hello, ask a few questions, and pose for a quick photo.
Robin Beanland, Head of Music, Celebrity Appearance of the Day
My group was Team 3, and Ready Up and freelancer Dan were my new teammates. I found my best game was bowling, Pro rank in Wii Sports bowling will do that, but I still had a go at some of the more athletic activities. Each of the teams became quite insistent on their choice of mascot, believing characters such as Marathon Mouse and Rapid Robot would bring luck. In our bracket we won our first game, lost the second, and won the third. The two teams with the highest overall score then played for a place in the final. This put us back against the first team that we'd played for the qualifying match for the final. In the end, we didn't make it.
With extra time left waiting for the other teams to finish, I could thoroughly investigate the Kinect unit. The red light is constantly on, which made me feel a bit like I was being watched. After my investigation the demo unit was put back in use, as it was turned off during the tournament so there was more spectator space. Of course the Kinect was now unable to position itself correctly, eventually requiring a restart of the 360. My record for being handed preview builds and then breaking them was upheld, even when there was nothing to put in my hands. Then we all went up the corridor once more to watch the finals, back on the projector in the canteen.
Another corridor journey
The day closed with the final showdown where half the room cheered for each team, winner's cake was delivered by suprise Sports mascot Rapid Robot, and finally, the winning team played against Rare's All-Star team for a final round of Party Play. Winning teams received signed artwork and copies of Kinect Sports, while everyone took home t-shirts, keyrings, and Viva Pinata toys.
(1) Final round
(2) Rapid cake delivery
(3) Actual cake
The real surprise of the day was how everyone came together so enthusiastically for the tournament in the afternoon. No one played half-heartedly or feigned enthusiasm, but really put their all into each event for their team. The combination of the game actually working really well and an atmosphere that could have come only from demoing a game like Sports meant there were many converts by the end. It wasn't a casual gamer audience either, most conversations besides Sports were about Halo Reach. The day was great fun for all involved and I'm very pleased that I was able to be there.
Questions about the day, or Kinect Sports? Catch me in the Talkback comments for this article.
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