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Audio&Games

Elder rhythm

There’s no point to argue against it: Europe is aging fast. Here’s the fact that is really really huge:

“Austria’s Social Affairs Minister painted a bleaker picture in 2006, saying the 55 to 64 year old age bracket in the European Union will be larger than the 15 to 24 year old bracket by 2010.”

In other words while the game industry is totally focused on the hard 15-24 year old bracket, almost nobody’s is thinking about this (full of cash) 55-64 bracket. Instead big publishers focus on.. Fuck-me.

I only saw two projects about the senior market. The first one is Dancetown “a PC-based dance game specifically aimed at older players and retirement homes, to give players regular exercise and reduce the risk of falling”.

A DDR game for people born in the 1920s 1930s, I really like the idea. My grandmother has no hard physical problems yet she can’t move without this because she did nothing with her muscles for YEARS. Dancetown can be a real good solution for people like her (well, before her state).

The second attempt to solve people problems with games is the Eldergames project funded by the European Commission. The first prototype is pretty cool: a touchscreen table with card games and adaptive AI to maintain player’s cognitive action up while playing with others. Hoping that it’s gonna get somewhere (this is a problem with EU you know).

Games are for everybody, and not everybody is a male stuck in the early twenties. On the left the original swedish developer design, on the right a korean fanboy design:


Bigger (not that, the overall pic dude).

Developer’s reaction:

“We really wanted to get away from the typical portrayal of women in games, that they’re all just kind of tits and ass in a steel bikini. We wanted her to look athletic and fit and strong [enough] that she could do the things that she’s doing.

We wanted her to be attractive, but we didn’t want her to be a supermodel. We wanted her to be approachable and far more real. It was just kind of depressing that someone thinks it would be better if Faith was a 12-year-old with a boob job. That was kind of what that image looked to me.”

I agree. The fact is that it doesn’t really matter in a First Person View game. Concept art is so 90s. Play, feel (the Pure Time Trial map pack DLC seems neat and totally going this way), don’t be a visual dumb slut.

About playing, Auditorium is an awesome experience. So is The Lake minus the music: please indie peeps, slow down on 8bits saw/square melodies and snare noises, it’s fucking limited. The Lake could have been a much more better experience for me with a good old stereo mp3/pcm whatever music file. I keep thinking about the experience though. We all should do more 5 minutes games like this.

Rhythm Tengoku is coming to Europe in January. Don’t miss it (Wario Ware meets Ouendan). Audio for the win.

 
So cutyfunkyfresh.

4 replies on “Elder rhythm”

We can criticized Electronic Arts over-strenght, but that’s a pitty that such original and ambitious title as Mirror’s Edge harvest less success than others blockbusters.

That’s fascinating how they break their own realistic urban code to switch to something highly graphical and abstract.

For the rest, we were young in the 80’s, we grow old in the 00’s !

*tentative de comment en rosbif*

Hey pal!

I think Mirror’s Edge should have been developed a little more, it feels that it have been rushed to match financial. But clearly this is the good way to go: innovation, original stuffs.

The bad news is that it doesn’t match how AAA games are made..

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