The idea of pottery as a game had never occurred to me. But to the people of Infinite Dreams, it was the perfect subject for a new iPad game. Let's Create: Pottery HD is a game they developed, where you have to create and decorate pottery to play the game. It may sound a little cheesy to those of us who do this for a living. But I'm sure Need for Speed seems weird to Formula 1 drivers.
In the game, you play a Roman potter responsible for filling the orders of your customers. You are given specific shapes and surfaces that the customers request and you have to create them. You get paid depending on how accurately you recreate the shape. You can then use your money to buy new decorating techniques. Pretty simple and amazingly engaging. To me as a game, it is in the realm of Tetris. Wherein, you are just trying to match shapes and use your visual judgement to perfectly mimic the shapes in front of you. For someone like myself who likes playing games, but I am not particularly fond of a game where you are under pressure of a ticking clock or Zombie attack.
This game is meditative and as far as creating pots, the user interface is fairly realistic. Of course for those of us who work on the wheel, it is not a tactile experience. When Mrs. Rose saw me playing, she said " Oh, that's cheating" Because to pull and shape the pot, you drag your finger across the profile. It is not a two handed, interior/exterior shaping like we are used to. That said, the challenge of working the clay and the movement is realistic enough to be enjoyable. You pull up, collar and shape like you normally would.
There are some things that the experienced potter will not like, but I think they do not limit the enjoyment of the game.
A) There are no tools and no trimming. so what ever shaping you do, is just from shaping on the wheel.
B) No matter how hard I try, I couldn't get the clay on the wheel to collapse. It can pick up a wobble is you do not shape symmetrically. but it will not fall over. I understand why they did this, because it would anger people to have their clay constantly collapsing, But it would add a level of realism.
C) The decorating and firing functions are generic, the "Kiln" is just the same spinning wheel, with a red tint and a brick background. The decorating, is really just tempplated and does not have the subtlety of the shaping mechanics.
That said, I really enjoyed the game. It is a new type of challenge, that may have a bright future in the realm of gaming.
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3 comments:
Now there will be all these people thinking they really know how to throw a pot. It is like Guitar Hero players who think they can actually play.
Well, They do say that Guitar Hero got more people playing actual guitar. I say the more people we have making pots, the better.
Wow interesting game concept! The visuals look really great, would actually be a useful tool for modeling pots in 3D
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