These toy figures connect with a ‘portal’ peripheral that activates their in-game counterparts. It will give them fuel for being ”really engaged in it outside” the games.
”Well, I think that imagination is a huge thing for kids, and I think that any good kid’s game is going to engage a kid’s imagination and it’s only going to dictate so much as is necessary to engage them,” said game director Ben Throop of Vicarious Visions.
”After that, you have this amazing tool of children’s minds and their imagination wanting to run wild, and the toys and game here give them an opportunity to do that.”
”They can play a level, but then they can continue the story in their head, so I think giving them fuel for not just playing the game but to be really engaged in it outside of the game itself is a really key thing.” The game lets kids engage beyond books or film.
”You’re creating the experience moment to moment with what the toy is doing so I think it opens up the possibilities of how a kid can be engaged. See, I have a two year old, and I’m really excited for him to get old enough to play with these,” he continued.
Throop says having your own child changes how you approach such a project. ”I think when you have a kid, you start to see how fresh their view of the world is, and all the things that you assume and take for granted aren’t there for them.”
”I think there are positives to that – for example, you can’t predict the things that children are going to imagine when they see what you’ve made.” Perhaps the best example of this positive would be Sony’s LittleBigPlanet for PlayStation 3.
Of course there are drawbacks to be had: ”But then there are also assumptions that you make, like, ‘of course they know what double jump is,’ but a lot of kids might not have been introduced to a great platforming game before,” noted Throop.
”So in our first level, we take the time to get them ramped up on a lot of things that older gamers take for granted, and then we really let them run with it after that.”
The Vicarious game director believes all the physical components needed - the figures and the portal - are part of Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure’s charm and that it will get kids more excited, although they aren’t needed all the time.
”…I think that there’s going to be a lot of kids and a lot of players in general who are going to be proud and happy to be toting their toys and their portal around,” he added.
”I actually had this whole setup on the airplane recently and I wanted to do a play through of the game, and it was kind of interesting to be on the seat of the plane playing the game, and I had a twelve year old and a thirteen year old behind me, they were like, ‘that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!’ and I didn’t even realize that they were there.”
”I think that there’s a certain spectacle that you create by getting this whole rigmarole out and doing it that I think a lot of people are really going to get a kick out of.”
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure releases on Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo 3DS, Wii and PC October 14th in Europe, 16th in the US. Of all the versions releasing, the 3DS title from Vicarious Visions is said to be the most ‘action platformer’ of them all.
Are Spyro’s days with the ‘mature gamer’ over? Do you know a young gamer in the making who’d get a sugar rush out of Activision’s Skylanders?
