NaturalMotion Throws Down
They've always said their euphoria engine could revolutionize sports, now they want to prove it.
Published: August 22, 2007
Well, they've got some serious balls, we'll give 'em that. NaturalMotion has been making waves for a while now with their suite of middleware that allow developers to essentially program characters with their own behaviors, right down to a virtual nervous system. This effectively means they can animate themselves based on a set of perimeters and if you run a simulation a hundred times, it'll play out differently every time, as we found out in our interview with NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil.
That's the idea, anyway. The execution has been a little less than perfect in early demonstrations, but it's obvious the potential is there. Still despite being used in games like Indiana Jones, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Grand Theft Auto IV, there's one genre that hasn't really been touched on yet: sports. Since there were apparently no takers from either the EA or the 2K camps, NaturalMotion is doing the unthinkable: they're making their own.
Ignoring the fact that NaturalMotion hasn't yet made game, the idea that someone would leverage the tech to make a football game that allows the tackles to be different every single time players come together is so damned intriguing that we almost don't care if the game ends up being a pile; as a pure proof of concept, the appropriately named Backbreaker has the potential to show just how dynamic a sports game can be when pre-canned animations aren't part of the game.
Or, just as easily, it could break the game.
All we have to go on right now is a teaser trailer and a couple of early screens. They show little more than a handful of players on a field surrounded by a massive crowd, but then the game isn't even due out until next year -- and likely late next year at that. By all means, we invite you to take a peek at the screens and especially the teaser trailer and see for yourself what you think.
That's the idea, anyway. The execution has been a little less than perfect in early demonstrations, but it's obvious the potential is there. Still despite being used in games like Indiana Jones, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Grand Theft Auto IV, there's one genre that hasn't really been touched on yet: sports. Since there were apparently no takers from either the EA or the 2K camps, NaturalMotion is doing the unthinkable: they're making their own.
Ignoring the fact that NaturalMotion hasn't yet made game, the idea that someone would leverage the tech to make a football game that allows the tackles to be different every single time players come together is so damned intriguing that we almost don't care if the game ends up being a pile; as a pure proof of concept, the appropriately named Backbreaker has the potential to show just how dynamic a sports game can be when pre-canned animations aren't part of the game.
Or, just as easily, it could break the game.
All we have to go on right now is a teaser trailer and a couple of early screens. They show little more than a handful of players on a field surrounded by a massive crowd, but then the game isn't even due out until next year -- and likely late next year at that. By all means, we invite you to take a peek at the screens and especially the teaser trailer and see for yourself what you think.