Natural User Interface

I was out in Redmond, Washington last summer, and one of the phrases that they used a lot at Microsoft was "Natural User Interface". They are striving for a natural user interface with all of their applications, operating systems, mobile products, and of course with Project Natal. While I was out there, I had the priveledge to try Natal and play their demo called "Ricochet". Ricochet is a breakout/brick breaker style game that takes place in three dimensions. You use your body as the paddle to reflect the balls towards the square panels at the end of a long corridor that you are trying to break. The ball starts out floating in the air above your player, and you have to swat the ball to get it moving. Unlike breakout where the paddle only moves along one dimension, your body must move in three dimensions. Not only does it have to block the ball in the x and y directions to prevent it from going past you, but you must also swing forward to give the ball momentum as it travels down the corridor.



While I was watching someone else play, I noticed there was a lot of lag between their movements and the movements of their character. It looked like it would be difficult to play with a lot of complex motions, but when I got to try it myself, the one word that best described my experience was "natural". I've played a lot of video games in my life, but I've never played a game that was as intuitive as Ricochet. It just felt "right". I could not tell if the latency was caused by the technology or if it was intentionally programmed into the game. Since I was standing a few feet away from the TV, the actions of my avatar were timed to move about when the ball would have reached me had it continued through the screen and towards my actual body. I'm not sure if this will be present in other Natal games, but in Ricochet it felt perfect.

Now I can only hope that Natal will have enough pinpoint accuracy to make the first fun beer pong video game.