E3 2009: Microsoft introduces Project Natal Video

E3 2009: Microsoft introduces Project Natal Video Transcript

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>> Kudo: All right. Thanks, Dong. Um, so, thank you. So, Dong challenged us to think beyond, and what did beyond really mean to our team? Well, we wanted to build experiences that no matter what your age or gaming ability you could instantly jump in and have fun, while providing core gamers a level of control they never dreamed possible. Experiences where you have total control over your in-game character just by moving your body or using your voice. You have control over your avatar in the most natural way imaginable. So we got some early prototypes that we want to show you that really illustrate our vision. So, the first demo I'm going to show you is a demo of the dashboard. With Natal, even navigating the menus becomes a magical experience. So one of the coolest things about the dashboard now is that the Xbox instantly recognizes who I am, and signs me in automatically. So this type of facial recognition has never been seen in any consumer electronics product. Uh, next, check out our full-body motion capture. So, as you can see, when I start making movements with my avatar, it instantly mimics me on screen. You ever wonder what the bottom of an avatar's shoe looks like? Well, bam! There it is! All right, so let's get in and navigate the dashboard. So I can now choose between different categories in the dash, with just a simple swipe of my hand. Or I can also choose between different menu options by moving my hand left or right. I can now go anywhere in the menus, no controller required. Let's launch one of our other technology demos and see what Natal can really do. This tech demo, it's a full-body athletic and competitive activity that we call Ricochet, so let's jump in. All right, so the great thing about Ricochet is how fast anybody can jump in and start having fun. There's no controls to learn, you already know how to play the game just by knowing how to move your body. The simple point of this game is to destroy the bricks at the end of the hall; it's like a 3D breakout where your body controls the ball. So Abigail, why don't you take it away. ^M00:02:24 [ Sound effects ] ^M00:02:26 So you can see right away the things that can only be done with Natal. Abby's got full control of her avatar just by moving her body. No controller required. ^M00:02:34 [ Applause ] [ Sound effects ] ^M00:02:39 But, hey, this demo, it's not just about waving your arms. You can also move around freely in 3D space. So we don't have to set any of the movements for you in the game. She's free to move wherever she wants, she can move in and out to hit the balls harder, she can move left and right to keep the balls in play. And when you combine this kind of full avatar control and the ability to move around freely in your living room, you are going to get true physical play. Nice kick serve, Abby. So besides being super fun to play, Ricochet also keeps you in great shape. You can see by the nature of the game, she is constantly moving around. With all the multi-balls, she has to keep extremely active to keep the game going. This isn't a game where you end up on the sofa just using some kind of pre-set waggle commands. ^M00:03:22 [ Applause ] ^M00:03:32 All right, nice job, Abby. And now with the power of the 360, developers get the full-body tracking and the precision to build deep layers of gameplay. So we're using real-world physics to calculate how each ball reacts to her body. So she can aim to hit those multi-ball power-ups you see down at the end of the hall, or you can just add more power by hitting the ball harder to generate all those fireballs you see onscreen. Awesome job, Abby. Let's give her a hand. ^M00:03:57 [ Applause ] ^M00:04:03 So Ricochet is currently single-player, but our technology will also allow us to track multiple people so we can make all games multi-player as well. So this next tech demo we are going to show you highlights the purely creative and collaborative types of experiences you can build with Project Natal. We call this demo Paint Party. Paint Party is a 3D art demo where you can use your full-body motion and voice recognition to express your inner creativity. So to show off Paint Party, let's welcome Darren Bennett, a Creative Director at Microsoft Games Studio. ^M00:04:33 [ Applause ] ^M00:04:34

>> Darren: Hey, everybody. Thanks, Kudo. So, up on our canvas here, we have our inspiration image. It's an African Elephant on the plains of Kenya. So, I'm feeling inspired, uh, let's splat. So you see, there's my big canvas. That's where we're going to paint our background. Uh, light blue. I'm going to slop around some paint with my bucket throw here. That's my sky. Then I think I'll put a great big cloud up in the sky. White. So throw another bucket up there. There's my cloud. Now I'm going to go to some one-handed gestures and paint some mountains in the background. Blue. Okay, all right. There's my mountains. Now let's put, uh, let's put some earth down. Dark brown. Oh, there we go. So, painting my ground. Then I am going to want some brown, and then I'm going to just lay down a little extra texture on there. I'm gonna get some light brown. All right, a little more texture and color in there. Uh, and then I think I want a treeline in the background. Could I get some green? All right, there's my treeline. So, I think that's a pretty awesome background, but uh, I'm not quite satisfied yet. I want to put a tree up in the foreground. So, could I get brown, and make my trunk? Sweet! All right, now I am going to put some palm leaves on it. Uh, green. So, there we go. Little finer strokes with my hand. Put some palm leaves on there, not even sure there are palm trees in Kenya. But there we go. Okay, so I'm stoked on my background, and now I want to make the elephant. And so I'm gonna say pose. That brings in my stencil paper, and you can see, I can use my whole body, make any kind of crazy pose I want, and if you have any friends or family in the living room, you can invite them on in, and they can help you make some art as well. And since I'm making a four-legged animal, I need some help. So, Abby, would you like to come back up and help me make my elephant? Okay, so, here we go. ^M00:07:18 [ Applause ] ^M00:07:20 All right, so there's our elephant. ^M00:07:23 [ Applause ] ^M00:07:24 All right. It's good to have a little snack, right? Check it out. Have a little grass, tastes good. Okay, and so now we're going to take our stencil. So, ready? Cheese. All right. So there's our el -- thanks, Abby! ^M00:07:49 [ Applause ] ^M00:07:51 Okay, so now we're going to paint him in. Elephants are grey. Throw a couple more buckets up there. Now I'm going to sandwich my stencil with my background, when I say "reveal." ^M00:08:06 [ Applause ] ^M00:08:07 And there's our gorgeous masterpiece. ^M00:08:09 [ Applause ] ^M00:08:13 Thanks.

>> Kudo: All right. Great job, Darren and Abby. Let's hear it for them one more time. ^M00:08:16 [ Applause ] ^M00:08:22 So as you can see, with Natal we can deliver experiences that can't be done in any other medium or on any other console. We got full-body control of your avatar, being able to move freely around in 3D space, using your voice naturally as a part of the experience, and all without a controller. Project Natal will work with all Xbox 360's, and development kits are arriving at our partners today. ^M00:08:45 [ Sound effects ] ^M00:08:48