It takes skilled developers and astute design choices to deliver controls that are truly new - not more options. It also takes the oldest form of virtual control, the keyboard, and recreates it in a completely new and frustrating way: Make a guy run that's the impossible task.Īllowing me to shake my body, wave my hands, yell, or push more buttons doesn’t automatically make for a better experience. They constantly give us new input schemes that are more "dynamic" and "veritable." QWOP, in an incredibly fun and hilarious way, shows us that proximate control has its limits - limits that make a game fun and usable.
When developers promote new titles, they often refer to a “higher degree” or “new level” of control. Home devices like Kinect, Move, and Wii have found ways to interpret physical player input as character action, and touch interfaces are now the mandatory status quo for mobile gaming. When operated perfectly, QWOP very accurately portrays human kinesiology, but by assigning a muscle group to each button, Foddy shows us how control over a video game can become so comprehensive that it is no longer playable, or more importantly, enjoyable.Īn obsession with control has come to define the current generation of gaming. It's a feat I haven’t since been able to replicate.īennett Foddy created the game by taking running, an action usually assigned to one button like "right" or "left," and turning up the specificity of control until it no longer resembles natural movement. I recently set a new personal record by using a jumping, scissoring leg motion for 100 meters. In order to get forward momentum, the player often finds new manners of "locomotion," such getting low and crab walking or frantically hopping around.
The design idea and the humor of QWOP come from the same place: It is nearly impossible to make Qwop run properly, so he tends to jerk around, crouching, leaping, and sticking his legs out like a sort of Minister of Silly Walks. The graphically improved iPhone version features an even more elegant (?) control scheme: Each leg has four positions the player can cycle through. The player has to help him win an Olympic Gold Medal - and he's only four buttons away from victory. He is eager to run, but doesn't know how. Qwop comes from a perpetually snow-covered country that has no racetracks to practice on.
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