Winds of Orbis
Developer: Carnegie Mellon – Entertainment Technology Center
Nomination: Student Showcase
Platform: Windows with Wii-mote and floor pad (trailer available)
Website
Description: Step up to the dance pad and take on the role of the hero to save the world and get a good workout.

Adam’s Thoughts:
Winds of Orbis is one of the few games at the IGF that isn’t so notable for its innovation in design as in the living room. The gameplay footage makes the game look like an typical action adventure in the Zelda vein, but Orbis takes the Wii remote swordplay of that series and expands the idea with a floor pad. The outcome is a game where you have to use gestural controls for everything. You run in place to move, cycle through four floor buttons to crawl (which means you’ll need to use your hands and knees to hit them all), gesture with the wii remote to push and pull blocks, and generally mime everything you do in the game.

This is hardly the first game to try tricking kids into exercising, but Orbis deserves credit for doing it with naturalistic motion. Adults interested in recapturing their childhoods may also be interested; if you can get past the embarrassment of actually playing it, this game may be the most effective available way to simulate playing pretend. Orbis may not be a novel game, but it promises a novel way to play.

Katie’s Thoughts:
Take 3D Legend of Zelda game, add in some Dance Dance Revolution and finally Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, stir it together, and you get Winds of Orbis, an “Active Adventure” game: an action adventure game that makes you run, crawl, and jump around yourself to navigate your avatar through the richly animated world to defeat . . . well, we don’t know yet, just from the trailer, but probably untold (or foretold!) evil of some sort.

The game’s core great idea, getting the players up off the couch to interact with the game, is also its drawback: the game takes a lot of energy to play. This is great for rainy days when children are running around and tearing up the house, and parents need them to spend their energy doing something less destructive. Adults who work all day, have bad knees, or simply would be embarrassed by crawling around on a floor pad are going to find the game less inviting. Even if the game will have to be played in 30 minute chunks to accommodate the level of abuse an adult gamer can take, active adventure games will give players a compelling reason to get up and exercise.

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Tags:   GDC · IGF · Student Showcase1 Comment

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