Schafer: "you can't port your game to Kinect"

Double Fine's Tim Schafer, he of calling Bobby Kotick a "prick" fame, has laid down the law for Kinect developers, arguing that you can't just take an interface built for buttons and whack it into a motion control scheme.

"I think they're still trying to figure out how to make great games for Kinect," Schafer told VG247, when asked whether the industry was still getting to grips with Kinect. "I think the best games for Kinect are games that were, like the Happy Action Theater, created wholly from scratch for the Kinect. They're just designed for it.

"It's not a replacement for an Xbox controller. There's no right button, there's no pressure in the left stick - it's not a port. You can't port your game to Kinect.

"You really have to start from the beginning and think about all the motions that the Kinect sensor is good at picking out, and all the activities that it picks up really well that have never been able to be detected before. Like directional voice; it can tell where in the room you're talking from.

"Basing work around those strengths, I think, will lead to the best Kinect game."

Happy Action Theater is a minigame compilation for kids that makes extensive use of Kinect. There are 18 games, some derived from classic titles like Space Invaders, others a shade more novel.

According to the dramatically original Schafer, Kinect's brilliant because it's fun for all the family. "I think it has a lot of potential, especially like I said for family games and physical games. I think it's much more inclusive.

"It lets a lot of people come in and play games who hadn't been able to before. I think it will continue to grow in that area. I think it's really important for consoles to provide something that can't be provided by an iPhone."

Kinect is a big-seller, with over 18 million units sold worldwide to date, but opinions differ over how best to design games for it. Epic would like Xbox 720 to include a Kinect sensor as standard.

Microsoft began hiring for two new internal Kinect studios recently, promising "compelling and innovative" titles.