IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Interview: Softkinetic Establishes Development Studio for Motion Sensing Cameras

Posted September 22, 2009 by James Brightman

Softkinetic, which provides 3D real-time gesture recognition middleware to game, consumer electronics, health care and serious games companies, today announced the launch of a new development arm, Softkinetic Studios. This subsidiary will be completely focused on designing and developing video games, interactive content and natural interfaces using 3D cameras (such as Microsoft's Project Natal and others).

This new development studio is comprised of game industry veterans with more than 40 years of combined experience working for companies such as Infogrames, Darkworks, 10Tacle, Playlogic and Elsewhere Entertainment on titles like Outcast, Outcast 2, Alone in the Dark and I’m Alive. The new studio has already announced its first game called Silhouette, “the world’s first gesture-based video game which treats players to a rhythm gaming experience without the need for any controller.” 

Silhouette will be on display for the first time at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference, in San Jose, CA from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 2009. Attendees will be able to control the game’s on-screen avatars through their own body movements in real time (much like what we've seen with Project Natal). Softkinetic says the game “challenges players with a series of rapidly approaching walls, each containing a different person-shaped opening – to successfully pass through each musically driven challenge, players must pose and contort their bodies to guide their in-game avatars through.”  Silhouette is currently slated for release in the second half of 2010. Although no specific platforms were mentioned, we'd assume that a version for Xbox 360/Project Natal is planned.

“Softkinetic Studios brings several decades of combined experience in video game design and development. The opportunity to form a studio focused exclusively on this revolutionary 3D camera technology is very exciting, and Silhouette is perfectly suited to leverage this new technology,” said Cyrille Wagner, Softkinetic Studios’ technical director. “The momentum created by recent announcements such as Microsoft Natal, combined with Softkinetic’s leadership in 3D gesture recognition market paint a promising picture for our new studio.”

“Softkinetic has established a leadership position in the 3D gesture recognition market, and our iisu software platform offers developers in this pioneering space a standard development platform that supports all 3D depth sensing cameras, in addition to adaptability for any hardware platform,” added Eric Krzeslo, Softkinetic’s chief strategy officer. “Over the years we have developed unique know-how and expertise in building immersive gesture-based applications, and we have seen an increasing demand not just for our technology – but for applications and content as well. Softkinetic Studios is our answer to this demand.” 

IndustryGamers had a chance to discuss Softkinetic's new development studio and the motion sensing trend with CEO Michel Tombroff.

IndustryGamers: Will games at Softkinetic Studios be self-published or are you working with publishing partners to publish a game like Silhouette on Xbox 360/Project Natal?

Michel Tombroff: We will work with publishers for the launch of our games, and will also consider using only distribution platforms. 

IG: How many games will Softkinetic Studios develop each year? 

MT: It is hard to say because Softkinetic Studios will not just develop “traditional” video games but also other forms of interactive content for 3D cameras. At the moment we plan on working on one game per year with the current team.

IG: Are the games automatically more casual focused because they are controller free, or do you see hardcore gaming applications with this too? 

MT: The first “wave” of games will be more casual indeed. But as the 3D gesture recognition technology becomes adopted more generally it will be used in new forms of applications (interactive TV applications, deeper games, etc.) 

Everybody has the Wii experience in mind – and therefore the associated notion of casual games – but this has primarily been due to the limitation of the Wii platform’s limited capabilities as well as the focus of Nintendo’s marketing. But 3D gesture applies to many genres and should not be limited to casual games.

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.