E3 2011: Once Upon a Monster interview – part two

The second part of our interview with project manager Nathan Martz, this time look at the challenges of creating physical - and frightening - Games for children

Critically acclaimed developer Double Fine, the eccentric creator of such delicacies as Brutal Legend and stacking, surprised the world when announced that it will work on a Sesame Street game. But studio founder and game industry legend Tim Schafer grew up loving the series - which he saw as a comedy sketch show, but as an educational institution.

Once Upon a monster, a sort of interactive story book that will help the players to get a number of monsters in touch with their feelings is not your average yawn-inducing "edutainment" nightmare, it 'sa fun, visually appealing mini - Game collection, making fine use of Kinect controller.

In part two of our interview with the game 's project manager, Nathan Martz, we address the challenges of introducing children (and parents) come up to physical inspections and tricky problem, as Scary Kids' can be stories.

So, Once Upon a monster is a physical game for very young children. Did you have to think carefully about the amount of physical effort in every task necessary?
We 've been focus testing this game since our early prototypes, and it' s not the kids who are tired, it 's the adults - we have more to worry about the parents! The game is structured as a series of chapters and we 've designed it that closed after 30 minutes of the game you can put it. The chapters themselves are broken up into the activities and between each activity that you turn the page and in the course of the game at the pace you want it. So we 've built in the breaks every 3-5 minutes.

The chapters are divided into different emotions motto, aren 't they?
Emotions are used as major themes. Shyness is a - we have a monster that 's had a great idea, but too shy to carry it out, so that you can help him. We have a chapter about courage and about being themselves - and these two concepts are intertwined. We have a really fun one about music and dance, where we recognize the band as a metaphor for family, that everyone has a different role and appreciate people who are often not appreciated in a family.

In addition to Sesame Street, what were some of the influences on Once Upon a monster in terms of communication stories and characters for children?

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We 've learned a lot about co-op, especially intergenerational co-op - how to be forgiving and accessible game design, and embraces the whole Kinect idea if you think you are doing the action correctly, you are - that 'sa massive lesson. And there 's the key Kinect maxim: physical fun. Everything you do in Kinect, the more you do it physically, which is stupider, the more fun it is to be done. And the other thing is, it 's just as much fun to watch as it is to play. It 's really nice, people in the game and I feel happy to see me.

And what of the most difficult element has been Kinect?
Two-player co-op mode is hard! With two players on the same screen, there are so many things that you just haven 't that are really hard thought. Every idea has to walk around this crazy obstacle course.

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