Nintendo's Wii May Shake Up Video Game Design

by Alex Russel
alex.russel@computeranimationschoolreview.com
Computer Animation School Review Columnist

Nintendo's new Wii console (pronounced 'we') is another way the gaming industry is trying to get more people playing video games. Video game designers are worried that the usual audience (teenage boys) isn't enough for a sustainable future.

Video game design companies are constantly on the prowl for new audiences. One of the effects of that epic search is Nintendo's new Wii console, whose unique design is meant to attract users that may have shied away from video games in the past.

Video Game Design Gets New Joystick

The signature detail of the Wii console is its innovative joystick. The joystick is unlike any other before it. It's more of a motion detector than anything else. While playing a tennis video game design, for example, the user swings the joystick as if a racquet, and the user's on-screen avatar does the same. Test users of the tennis games are already extolling the virtues of the Wii joystick.

Video Game Design School Effects?

Anyone attending video game design school should look closely at the release of the Nintendo Wii. If the console catches on, video game design could expand into a whole new sphere.

Suddenly, video game design could become a far more physical concept. Video game users would be standing in front of the couch (throwing a football, slicing an enemy in half) instead of sitting in the couch clicking furiously at a more typical joystick. Video game design school is an excellent place to experiment with the frontiers of video game design. In fact, more and more colleges and universities offer a variety of video game design classes for an industry that is ever-expanding.

Different View For Video Game Design School

And one way to find new audiences is to explore game designs that are easier than the increasingly complex games designed for increasingly powerful (and expensive) video game consoles. A good project then for video game design school is to think more simply than many designers are inclined to do.

That's one of the stated desires of intended designers anyway. We'll see if users, and eventually designers coming out of video game design schools, will realize those goals.

Sources
USA Today
The New York Times Mulls The Potential For Video Game Design

About the Author
Alex Russel is a freelance media writer living in Brooklyn.

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