SIXAXIS uses

[patsu]

Looks to me like the player controls the butterfly to lead the Locoroco's who have some autonomy. More like Lemmings than Locoroco.

You are correct !
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/816/816610p1.html

There are some major differences from the PSP version. You take control this time of a butterfly, or perhaps a group of butterfiles, known as "Cocoreccho." By pressing the circle button, you can make the Cocoreccho shout "boo boo." This makes the sleeping LocoRoco in your area wake up and come to you. Your goal is to lead the LocoRoco to the stage's goal.

Original post edited.

 

[Refreshment]

Some very clever uses.

Why didnt Sony include 2 motion sensors in each side and made the Sixaxis capable to separate in the middle for some games?

For the standar games use the controller as normal (holding it with 2 hands), for a game like boxing split the controller in two pieces for example.
Of course there are some technical problems with this, like how the bluetooth tracks the controller, the batteries, etc. But with some clever engineering could have been posible.

The ecuation would have been complete with the Eyecamera tracking both pieces in your hands.

 

[Arwin]

The Folklore implementation is nice (just based on the JPN and US demos), but I hope that they mix it up more in the later parts of the game. Knowing that I either only have to tilt back and forth, or time a 'yank' (was going to use 'jerk', but that just sounded a little... strange , it pretty limited. I'd love to see a boss that you have to do multiple motions with during the same 'struggle'. Bash it back and forth for a bit to weaken it, then have it try to pull in different directions while you yank the controller in the opposite direction to reign it in, finally perhaps doing a timed 'pull' while it tries to retreat back inside the body. That said, I had a lot of fun in that demo, and I'll very likely be picking that up this fall (collecting the folks and upgrading them will nicely sate any OCD tendencies as well .

With Lair, I understand somewhat why they did what they did. I talk with Julian at most shows, and back at GDC he mentioned that they wanted to have one control method for each action (not one unified system, but only one option). They focus-tested the game a lot, and while the more 'hardcore' testers liked it (I think he said something like 50%-60% would recommend it to their friends), the less hardcore players really liked the motion control for flying (90% recommendation). He's said that a few times publicly since, basically saying that it's not a hardcore-focused game. I do wish they had exploited combinations of analog+motion, just like I suggested above for Motorstorm. On the ground, use the tilt to control the dragon's head (hold down the 'burn' button and tilt back and forth to cast a swath of flamey death , and in the air I wish they had fully adopted the idea that you were flying a living, intelligent creature (independent targeting, since the dragon's 'weapon' is not fixed in a direction, it can aim independent of the body's facing). Combine that with a few different attacks depending on either button pressure, combinations or something else (low-power fireballs, charged shots for structures (like torpedoes), fire streams for fly-by attacks, etc) and it would have been a more complex air-combat system. Would have also loved the melee attacks to be more ZOE-style, or even jousting-style fly-by attacks with almost a RPS combat system.

Well, that was a longer ramble than I intended. Hate when the backseat designer in me gets out of his cage .

Some great ideas! You can give him his own key. I'd hire you.

That butterfly thing in Loco Roco, I really hate being negative about something in advance, but this really doesn't sound like fun.

 

[SenatorMonkey]

Hehe - thanks for the vote of confidence . That's the biggest problem with my job on the fringe of the industry (networking middleware). I work with dozens of titles per year, and lots of different studios. I meet tons of developers and publishers, but it's very clear the nobody (and rightly so) ever wants to hear gameplay suggestions from a guy in sales .

 

[patsu]

Updated list of SIXAXIS usage because R&C added a few interesting ones.

Implemented
=========
It looks like one or two of our ideas have been implemented independently by developers:

bRoNx:
"in war games, you could use it to throw grenades" -- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Arwin:
"- in a racing game you could try to steer using the tilt..." -- like MotorStorm ?

"- in games like loco roco and mercury, I don't think I even need to explain" -- LocoRoco for PS3 under development (rumor or for real ?)
[EDIT: This entry turns out to be wrong. See http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1057204&postcount=21 for more details]

A few people (infinity4, Shifty) also mentioned using SIXAXIS to control head/camera separately from weapon orientation (like in Warhawk ?).


The devs came up with more:

Folklore: Tug of war (Although bRoNx mentioned fishing here: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=849469&postcount=11)

Little Big Planet: Some form of puppeteering ?

Playstation Home: Gesturing ?

Super rub-a-dub: 2.5D navigation + jump

flOw: 2D navigation

Warhawk, Lair, R&C: Gliding, flight, flight acrobatics

CoD: Rifle-butt enemy

Resistance: Shake to extinguish fire or remove tags, show/hide menus

Uncharted: Balancing on tree trunk

Heavenly Sword, Unreal Tournament: Guided projectiles (player remains stationery)

Ratchet & Clank:
+ Independent weapon movement and character movement at the same time (e.g., Tornado gun)
+ Control a free falling Ratchet to avoid air traffic and missiles
+ Control a laser beam to cut through rock walls (Make an opening or change the terrain for platforming)
+ Control a rolling ball to complete "Decryptor" circuits to open locked doors (a cool little puzzle game)
+ Control Visicopter -- a mini RC attack helicopter in Ratchet's arsenal


NBA 08: Advanced basket ball maneuver (See http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1056147&postcount=2)



Unimplemented
==========
rounin: "I would like the ability to use 2 controllers to control in Fight Night 3, one for each hand of the boxer. Detection of position should be done by integrating acceleration twice wrt time."

MasaC: "A table tennis game where you hold the controller in one hand and play like with a real table tennis racket, perhaps? Together with an EyeToy camera and the computational power of the Cell processor it should be doable."

Angelcurio: "In a boxing game, using the motion sensing funtion to dodge attacks. Just think about the old snes punch out and think about it using the sixaxis controller to dodge attacks, it would be awesome to see it implemented in a game like Fight Night."

rabidrabbit: "A game based on the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail"?"

Npl: "What Id like to see is subtile horror-games silently recognising patterns of your movements and trying to understand your current mood, and then act based on that.

ie. That guy has no fear of spiders, but each time a flying enemy shows up he`s twisting the pad like mad - wait till he has calmed down then occasionally freak him out with sounds/shadows of his biggest fear"

...plus someone mentioned a sword play game.


Any more bright ideas ?