作者：Noah Falstein

“在他的办公室里，他本可以很快地获得相同的数据，但在这里，他不得不从口袋里掏出手机，键入问题，然后阅读答案。Reedy和Bonner只要想到问题，答案就能传输到他们的脑袋里，根本无需这种操作。”——《Oath of Fealty》，Niven和Pournelle, 1981

Google Glass实现了科幻小说的描述。它与从前的硬件大不相同，为开发者打开了通向新世界的大门。当我思考Google Glass能给我们带来什么时，我回想起我在芝加哥度过的童年。记忆中，每到2月份的周六早上，我就会到院子里玩雪。雪在冬日的阳光闪耀，把世界装点成纯洁无瑕的处女地。我要用这些雪堆一个堡垒吗？城堡？雪人？邃道？雪城？还是全新的东西？邀请朋友一起做还是打雪仗？或者……做其他可以做的事，总之我觉得一定很棒。

初步报告

本文是我的研究的初步成果，我的探索还将继续进行。我是一名游戏设计师，不是程序员，还没开始探究超越当前软件和逻辑推算的硬件能带来什么。我希望与他人合作，一起探究Glass的真正价值，但现在，本文只是对这个新大陆的初步勘探。甚至在这个早期阶段，游戏开发者（或者说所有应用开发者）的许多传统假设显然让他们遇到了一点儿麻烦，也许给他们一点儿引导就能避免他们走进误区。本文目前只包含Glass在游戏设计方面优势和缺陷、核心价值观、从游戏设计的角度提出的如何应Glass的诞生而推进游戏创意的建议，以及游戏设计可能探索的某些创新领域。

好的，坏的，和丑的

首先，简要地回顾一下本文的探讨范围。Glass有许多优秀的品质和特性，无论是硬件上还是概念上都对Glass游戏的设计具有实用意义。Glass的许多功能与手机有所重叠，但也有些超过手机或为手机不具备的。

优势

1、解放双手的显示。从来没有一个游戏平台能在我们不需要时随时候命、默认休眠、一键启动。

2、补充画面和声音。视频显示和骨传导的声音都很吸引人，因为它们允许用户获得视觉和听觉信息补充自己的感官体验，而不必盯着屏幕或使用耳麦。

3、信息私人化。使用Glass时，玩家的游戏信息将不会被其他人察觉到。这就好像在扑克游戏中，各个玩家在自己的手机上可以看到自己的牌；或者在拼字游戏中，你能看到你的字母，而其他玩家仍然可以看到你的屏幕。有了Glass，“信息尽在你的眼前”成为可能，玩家将可以玩到向不同玩家展示不同信息的策略游戏。

4、多重输入。声音、触摸、按键和动作（眨眼、摇头等）使开发者在创造交互作用时有更多有趣的选择。Glass还可能允许用户通过蓝牙连接到手机或甚至游戏掌机，将它们作为控制器。

5、姿势创新。使用Glass可以做的姿势对大部分游戏开发者来说的都是很新鲜的，Wii和后来的Kinect的出现表明，新姿势可以显著地唤起玩家的兴趣，和提供新鲜有趣的玩法。

6、解放双手的操作。 这个变化可能对非游戏应用来说甚至更加重要。有太多人类活动是需要双手执行的，可以会弄脏手以至于你不愿意用手拿或碰设备即使你可以；Glass通过提供指令、放大、在线连接和分享等优势，解放用户的双手。

7、抵制附赠软件。新游戏设备或主机总是会先安装大量老游戏，为发布凑数。Glass虽然不能完全避免这个问题，但与标准的游戏平台（特别是下面提到的限制）的显著区别将使换了马甲的老游戏或新山寨无法良好地运行。

8、创新的吸引力。新设备多多少少会激起公众的热情，Glass则达到了前所未有的程度。公众的热情有利也有弊，但受到媒体和个人的关注总是好事。

当然，没有什么平台能适合所有游戏，每个平台都有自己的优势和劣势。Glass不是一个娱乐系统，所以这个判断并不适用于它，但Glass会被用于娱乐，有些特性将对许多开发者提出超过他们期待的要求。以下是我归纳出来的最重要的几个约束条件：

约束条件

1、有限的电池容量。游戏比其他应用更耗电池；根据我从开发者口中听到的提议，这可能是Glass普及面临的最大阻碍，可能迫使人们转变对Glass如何运行娱乐应用的期待。意外的是，这可能使Glass制造商更加遵守已公布的标准。

2、私人化。作为一种挂在脸上的设备，特别是它还这么精细昂贵，Glass与其他设备相比，将更拿用于分享。当对方看起来很会流汗、头太大或鼻子太宽、有病或者不太讲卫生，你肯定会犹豫要不要把Glass给他用。所以尽管早期的Glass应用鼓励玩家共享，但Glass的共享性最终被证明更接近头梳而不是智能手机。

3、小屏幕。Glass的屏幕很小，分辨率让人想起老式游戏系统而不是现代游戏，头戴设备的视野范围将极大地影响应用风格的选择。

4、触摸受限。Glass上的触摸命令比手机屏幕上的更少。当前操作系统的已经使用户对触摸命令的含义形成习惯性的期待，违背这些期待可能让用户感到困惑。

5、可能的干扰。当有人使用Glass的声音识别功能或不断地按头的一边或点头，一定会马上被认为是脑子抽风了。有人认为这只是一个改变习惯的问题，但Glass的输入惯例必须谨慎设计，确保它给人的第一印象是积极的。

最后，有几个问题是Glass本身的：

1、外观。Glass的外观可以算是有个性，但显然，有些人很觉得很怪异。这种偏见会慢慢改观，但人们还是会把这种不对称的眼镜与小说中的反派联系起来，比如《星际迷航》中的Borg。这种消极联想会一直存在。

2、隐私问题。这个问题在关注Glass的少数人中尤其敏感。开发者应该认真对待，以免惹上麻烦。

3、数字因素。在最理想的情况下，用户使用Glass时应该能够自然地互动、正常地说话或把他们正在看的东西拍成照片。然而，有些可能很有趣的游戏概念可能玩起来并不自然，这是应该避免的。例如，想象一下在一款游戏中，你通过转头、抬头和低头操作飞机，追击屏幕上的敌人，你说“嗒嗒”使机械枪开火。这么玩可能有趣，但你绝对不想在公交车上坐这些事。类似地，你可以玩摇头版《愤怒的小鸟》，但你的操作姿势并不好看。此外，它与本文关注的另一个要点——核心价值观并不相符。

核心价值观

Glass的开发者文件提出了三个主要价值观：人文性、即时性和简易性。用统筹性价值观来指导开发活动是应该遵循的原则，它使游戏具有一种一致性和普遍的易用性，同时不会把开发者限制在死板的规则内。这三个价值观还能增加应用开发的可行性，抵消或补充潜在的缺陷。所以应该考虑它们。

人文性，专注于人类互动活动，抵消机器潜在的消极影响。这种设备是为了帮助我们交流、与人建立关系、避免直接的交互活动。使用Glass帮助人们通过声音、信息、图片和视频建立联系，同时避免干扰你的视线。

即时性，专注于现在，可以防止我们走神。在线文件所谓的“现在”和与Google Now的联想当然是有意的。Google Now与Glass的功能配合得很好。但另外，它还有助于缓解那些不支持Glass的人的担忧——他们认为Glass会成为另一种高科技干扰因素。如果它只能即时使用，那么它就不会那么让人分心，这有助于解决现在许多人面临的分心问题。

简单性，这是最重要的。纵观电子游戏史，许多成功的游戏的界面和核心玩法都极其简单，比较早的例子有《太空侵略者》、《吃豆人》、《俄罗斯方块》，现代的例子有《Farmville》、《愤怒的小鸟》和各种三连消游戏（《宝石迷阵》、《Candy Crush Saga》等）。无论是哪一类游戏，简单都是非常重要的——根据我的经验，游戏设计最应该追求简单，特别是考虑到Glass的特性。爱因斯坦曾经说过：“任何事情都应该尽可能做到简单,简单到不能再简单。”这是Glass开发者和游戏设计师应该遵循的原则。

还有一些出自开发者文件的原则：

为Glass而设计。不要把针对其他媒体、设备的概念照搬过来。

不会干扰。当用户有需要时就能使用，不需要时就必使用。使用声音提示告诉用户有信息（游戏邦注：比如电子邮件），而不是弹出对话框。我们更擅长忽略我们知道不如突然出现在肯前的图像重要的声音，科学研究表明，我们对发生在我们的黑边视觉内的活动具有更强的反应性。

避免出乎意料。我听说这一条被修改成“意料之外的积极活动”，因为积极的意外是令人愉快的，从游戏设计的角度看，这也与“不要惩罚玩家”的基本原则一致。在游戏、一般的娱活动中，随机性和惊喜起着调味品的作用，适度使用可以强化体验，但过量使用，即使只是过量一点点，也可能毁掉整个体验，特别是对于我们经常想调整剧情或改变节奏的游戏。开发者应该非常慎重，避免在应用中加入过多的“惊”。

范式转移

“只因为你可以用Glass做某件看起来了不起的事，并不意味着你应该做那件事。”——Glass开发者Timothy Jordan的主张

利用Glass的优势的方法很多，但也不忽视或违背它的约束条件。为了成功，Glass开发者应该寻找最佳平衡点——也许不只一个点。以下是关于Glass的几个想法，也许可以指导你通向全新的领域。但务必谨慎，有些概念可能并不如看起来的那么实用，有些则可能使Glass获得巨大成功。

面对面

Glass是具有未来派、科幻感觉的设备，但说到游戏，可能不能不提一下电脑出现以前的时代。在那时，几乎所有游戏都是人与人直接互动的结果，在同一个房间，面对面交谈（想一下桌面游戏或扑克牌）。Glass把屏幕直接放在眼前，使那种游戏玩法成为可能，甚至比桌面游戏或手动打牌更少干扰，强调的只有人际互动。在电脑出现以前，人们这么玩游戏已经上千年了，所以Glass提供的游戏玩法对人们来说是很自然的，也许会让他们为如此人性化感到吃惊。

解放双手

Glass有许多利用显示特性的功能，其中最有意义的是不必手持和手动操作，而是通过头部姿势或声音控制。想象一下，用户一边做其他事，如煮饭、候车、爬山、做手术、做陶器、挖化石、钓鱼、做木工、捏面团、给狗洗澡等等，一边接收Glass的应用的指导信息。平板、手机或电脑屏幕也可以做这些事，但如果你曾经一边做面包一边看显示器上的食谱，或者一边探出头看屏幕一边拿油乎乎的手摸索车底，你就知道那有多么不方便。这里引用的许多例子主要是学习而不是游戏，但著名的传播学学者Marshall McLuhan曾指出：“如果有谁把教育和娱乐严格区分开来，那么他首先对二者就一无所知。”

不受黑暗环境的限制

Glass可以在完全黑暗的环境下使用——你不必担心把它放在哪里或使用它会不会打扰到别人。这就使某些干扰性的活动得以进行，举个将简单性和人文性相结合的例子——在小孩子床边读故事哄他们睡觉。当然，用平板或者书本加手电筒也是可以的，但孩子会因为看到光而分心。Glass允许你在不开灯或使用其他光源的情况下看书，你甚至腾出手来握住你的孩子的手。Glass也可以同步到电影，用来播放旁白（或者更准确的说，字幕），这样，人们就可以一起观看具有多种不同语言字幕的电影了——懂得电影中使用的语言的人可以不看字幕，这就减少了干扰。或者（在纯娱乐的层面上）Glass可以提供IMDB式的提示、导演的评论或MST3K式的讽刺语。

隐私

有些游戏成功地把它们的显著弱势转化为优势。早期的文字冒险游戏在广告画面上做得非常好。因为上述约束条件和担忧，我们可能可以看到一些机遇。例如，当你与恋人分享应用时，“私人”因素和隐私问题并不重要。而用Glass与亲密的朋友或恋人可以被看作是一种信任的信号。类似地，小屏幕和有限的电量适合简短的体验，这也意味着Glass游戏的开发成本与普通的游戏相比，大大降低了。上述许多潜在的缺陷放在这里反而成了优点。

市场优势

对于任何新技术，总是有一些简单的概念使执行它们的第一个人（或公司）获得巨大优势 。使生产成本降低的相同约束条件将增加“小人物”成为第一个想到“Glass游戏中的《Flight Control》”（一款非常老的iPhone游戏，它获得巨大成功是因为充分利用了触摸屏）的可能性。

正如前面所说的，制造商总是任意把其他平台的老游戏添加到新设备中。Glass也不例外，但它在许多方面与现有的设备不同，所以附赠应用将无法运行或受到严重的限制。我举一个简单的例子，用Glass执行的“战舰”游戏也许在技术上令人眼前一亮，但与用纸笔玩相比，乐趣将大大减少。另外，因为屏幕尺寸、有限的触击控制功能或电池寿命，很适合打发漫长的等待时间的热门的手机游戏也会成问题。所以移植手机游戏的想法虽然诱人，但考虑到上述缺陷，还是谨慎为妙！

创新游戏

除了上面提到的概念，为了解释指南而不是约束开发者，以下还罗列了更多想法。这些概念只是一些可能改编或扩展成完整产品的零碎想法。

说书人

正如前面所说的，Glass非常适合在黑暗的环境中讲故事时使用——除了用于哄小孩子睡觉时讲故事，还可以用于露营时讲鬼故事。真是方便。

翻版《狼人》/《黑手党》

这是一种要求一群人一起玩的派对游戏。Glass可以产生有趣的游戏变体，即一个玩家使用Glass来克制（特殊的角色，或特殊“魔法”能力如看到前方的辉光）最近的“狼人”。

谋杀案

一种流行但受限制的RPG游戏类型就是“杀人游戏”。有了Glass，这种类型的游戏可以成为主流，执行办法就是Glass给每个玩家提供关于自己的角色或其他人的角色的秘密信息，同步“揭露”事件，和提供关于如何扮演这个角色的即时提示。或者类似地，如果一个角色被“鬼魂附身”可以走到其他人面前告诉对方他们在Glass中看到的信息，直到鬼魂离开他们。这样，你就有了一种非常有趣但可怕的“谁被附身”游戏。

即兴表演游戏

当两个人都用Glass时，就可以一起玩表演游戏了。

例1：各人读出显示在他们的屏幕上的台词，尽量表现出情绪和感觉。其他人可以投票表决哪个玩家表演得最好。

例2：各人根据描述即兴创作台词，例如一个人说：“好吧战士，让我们瞧瞧你怎么用你的牙刷打扫厕所”。另一个玩家回应道：“好的，您真是军事专家！”无限重玩，只是需要玩家有一些想象力和表演能力。

无论是上述哪种情况，都可有好许多种对话，而且每种对话都有上百种由编剧写好的变体台词，以增加乐趣和幽默。许多变体如“是哪句台词？”或其他即兴表演游戏，以Glass作为主持人，每一个回合都是不同的。如果做得好，这可能可以成为《Apples to Apples》、《Charades》或《Cards Against Humanity》等流行游戏中的玩法的新执行办法。

眼中的星星

参观天文馆可能有点无聊和迂腐。但星球、星座故事、在夜空中闪烁的星光、行星被发现的历史或名称由来，却是很吸引人的。想象一下，有这样一种Glass应用，当十字准星对着月亮或其他著名的星体——最亮的星星如金星，它就会随之改变场景。当你转头时，Glass会告诉你关于星星和星座的故事和神话，甚至显示一些动画帮助你理解星座的形状……不仅你自己觉得有趣，当你和朋友晚上一起外出时，你还可以化身为“天文学家”，把Glass正在告诉你的东西再转述给你的朋友听。有些手机应用也有类似的功能，但代价是毁掉你的夜视功能和干扰你周围的人，而这些是Glass可以避免的。也许等到2015年，还会推出望远镜版的Glass，那时你就可以……呃，那还太遥远。

世界的另一端

与之前的概念类似，当你看朝着你的祖母所在的方向看时，如果Glass可以显示“你的祖母在XX地”的图标，或者其他什么地方，会使你在视频聊天或打电话时感到更接近对方。

此时此地

利用Google Now功能和直接连接到新闻条目，戴Glass的玩家做一系列表述，其他玩家则表态说该新闻为真或假。有时候Glass玩家看到信息后重复道，如“在你的方圆半英里的范围内有三家意大利餐厅”或者“Jennifer Aniston被曝与Brad Pitt一起出入Beverly山庄”。但这些新闻是“捏造”的。变体当然根据你所在的地方、当天或那个小时内发生的事。

总结

Glass是令人惊喜的设备，有很大潜力成为教育、游戏应用和其他娱乐活动的新平台。除了几个应该避免的潜在的暗礁，Glass的广阔大海等着开发者去探索！（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

A Game Designer’s Guide to Glass

by Noah Falstein

“In his office he could have got the same data just as quickly, but here he would have to take out his pocket communications terminal, type in the question, and read the answer.  Reedy and Bonner simply thought the question and got the answer piped into their heads without interrupting the conversation.”  – Oath of Fealty, Niven and Pournelle, 1981

Google Glass is Science Fiction made real, and different enough from what previous hardware can do to have opened up a whole new world for developers.  When I look at the landscape of what can be done with Glass, I flash back to my childhood in Chicago.  On a Saturday morning in February, I would awake to a yard covered deeply in pristine snow, glittering in the sunlight, untouched and untrodden.  Would I build a fort?  A castle?  A snowman?  Would I make tunnels and ramparts, build snow cities to demolish with my Godzilla-sized boots, come up with something entirely new?  Invite friends for a collaborative building session, or competitive snowball fight?  Or… anything seemed possible, but I knew it would be great.

A Preliminary Report

This document is just the earliest version of what may become an ongoing exploration.  I’m a game designer, not an engineer, and haven’t begun to explore what is possible with the device beyond the current software and a few logical extrapolations.   I expect to team with others to delve into what can truly be done with Glass, but for now this serves as a first scouting report of this new landscape.  Even at this early stage, it’s clear that many traditional assumptions of game developers (and likely app developers in general) may get them into a bit of trouble, that perhaps a little guidance may prevent.  The document in its current form consists of a survey of the qualities of Glass regarding game design, some values and principles taken from the Glass team and expressed from a game design point of view, recommendations on how to proceed with initial ideas of games for Glass, and some ideas of areas that might be explored for game design.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (cue Ennio Morricone music)

First, a short overview of the territory.  There are lots of good features and qualities, both concrete and conceptual that will be useful for games with Glass.  Many overlap what one can do with a cell phone, some are a subset of phone features, some are a superset, some entirely unique.

Advantages

Hands-free display – We’ve never had a game platform that instantly available, sleeping by default but ready to play with on command, waiting transparently when not needed.

Side-channel visuals and sound – the video display and the bone-conduction sound are both intriguing as they allow users to get visual and audible information as a supplement to their senses, without taking them over entirely as they may when staring at a screen or using headphones.

Private info, visually and aurally – Glass can give you information for game play that others can’t intercept without you knowing it.  With a poker game where each player has their cards visible on their cell phone, or a Scrabble equivalent with your letters visible to you, it’s still possible for others to see your screen without you knowing it as you look down at it – with Glass, they have to get literally “in your face” to be able to view your information, allowing strategic games with different information going to different players.

Multiple inputs – voice, touch, button and gesture (wink, head motions) give developers an interesting array of ways to interact – and bluetooth links to phones or even gamepads as controllers are possible.

Gesture novelty – in particular the kind of gestures possible with glass are quite new to most game developers’ experience, and as the introduction of the Wii and then Kinect showed, new gestures can particularly excite the interest of players and provide for novel and fun gameplay.

Hands-free operation – another potential game-changer (pun intended) but quite possibly even more important for non-game apps.  There are SO many human activities that involve using both hands, or necessitate getting your hands so dirty or contaminated that you wouldn’t want to hold or even touch a device even if you could, that Glass may aid by providing instruction, enhancement, online connection and sharing, and so many other advantages.  More on this later.

Shovelware resistant – any new game device or console has had a flood of old games repurposed onto it to provide some titles at launch.  Glass won’t be immune to this, but the deep differences from standard game platforms (particularly the limitations mentioned in the next section) will make it unlikely for either old reliables or new trendy games to work well.  This is encouraging insofar as it will reduce the number of ho-hum conversions.

The Wow factor – any new device excites some degree of enthusiasm from the public, and Glass has reached a height rarely seen before.  There is a responsibility associated with this kind of excitement, and some associated drawbacks (see below), but it’s an amazing advantage in getting press or personal attention from others in proximity.

Of course, no platform is perfect for all types of games, and each has its weaknesses, as well as strengths.  Glass was not created as an entertainment system, so this is not meant as a judgement on that basis, but it will be used for entertainment, and some features will dictate quite different functionality than many developers (to judge from personal experience) expect.  Here are some of the most significant I have noted:

Constraints

Limited Battery Time – game playing can eat up battery power faster than just about any other category of application, and to judge from the proposals I have heard so far from developers about what they’d like to do, this could be the single biggest impediment and may force a big shift in expectations over how entertainment apps will work on glass.  Serendipitously, this may encourage them to adhere more closely to the published values – but more on that later.

Personal – as a device you wear on your face, and as a relatively delicate and expensive one at that, Glass, more than many other devices, will be tough to share.  Even the thought of passing it onto another person, who may be sweaty, have a wider head or nose than you, or have an illness or questionable hygiene may prompt hesitation.  So although early Glass apps in particular may prompt others to want to share, in the spectrum of shareability Glass may ultimately prove to be closer to a hairbrush than to a smartphone.

Small Screen – the Glass screen is small, the resolution is more reminiscent of some older game systems than recent ones, and the wide range of viewing circumstances possible for a head-mounted display all will significantly affect the choices of application style.

Limited Touch – the range of touch variations available on the side of the glass unit is much more limited than what one can do on a phone screen.  Conventions in the current OS also are likely to set expectations on what kind of touch variations mean, and violating those expectations will cause confusion.

Potentially Intrusive Inputs – being with someone using voice recognition on Glass or touching the side of their head or nodding repeatedly can quickly begin to resemble the Saturday Night Live satire of Glass and intrude on others.  Some believe this is just a matter of changing conventions, but input conventions for entertainment on glass will need to be particularly discreet to ensure first impressions are positive.

Finally, there are a few issues that have already become associated with glass in the media that merit addressing, in particular for a game design guideline document like this, as games have a specific advantage in improving them:

Concerns

Visual appearance – the jury is still out on the visual styling of Glass.  But it is clear that some people find it odd.  It seems likely this will abate over time, but there are many unfortunate associations with asymmetrical eyewear and villains in fiction at least, from Pirates to Bond Villains to Star Trek’s Borg, that may cause the association to persist.
Privacy issues – this is a particularly sensitive point among the minority who seem concerned about Glass.  Developers will be wise to tread carefully here and not provide cause for concern.

The Dignity factor – Glass is at its best when interactions are natural, speaking normally or taking a photograph of something you’re already looking at.  There are some potentially fun game concepts that would however run counter to this natural approach that should be avoided.  For example imagine a “Red Baron” game where you control a plane by tilting your head to bank, climb, and dive, trying to chase and line up with an enemy in the screen, at which point you say “rat-a-tat-tat” to fire machine guns.  Could be fun, but wouldn’t be the kind of thing you’d want to do on a commuter train.  In a similar way, you could play a version of Angry Birds by tossing your head to emulate the slingshot, but it wouldn’t be pretty.  Furthermore, it would run counter to the values that are the next focus of this document.

Core Values

The developer docs for Glass cite three main values, Humanity, Immediacy (Now), and Simplicity.  The very concept of having overarching values to guide development is a great principle to follow, it gives the titles available on a platform a sense of consistency and a common accessibility without locking developers into rigid rules to follow.  And these three values are well chosen both to make application development more practical, and to counteract or compensate for potential weaknesses even as they build on Glass’s strengths.  It is helpful to consider them one at a time.

Humanity, the focus on human interaction, helps counteract the potential negative associations with cyborgs or machines.  This device is designed to help us communicate, to bond with other people, and is built to stay out of the way of direct interaction.  The strength here is to use Glass to help people connect with each other through voice, through messages, through sharing images and videos, all while staying out of your direct line of sight and letting you look people in the eyes.

Immediacy, the focus on the present, can keep us from zoning out.  The online docs say “Now” and the association with Google Now is of course intentional and useful.  Google Now lends itself well to the abilities of Glass, and has some game possibilities described later.  But in addition, it also works to deal with the naysayers who fear that Glass is yet another technological distraction – if it is used to literally stay present, be in the moment, it will be an anti-distraction, a way to help the mind return to what is happening currently.

Simplicity is the most important value of all.  Throughout the history of video games, many of the most successful games of all time have enjoyed interfaces and core gameplay that is extremely simple – consider Space Invaders, Pac Man, Tetris, and modern cases like Farmville, Angry Birds, and Match 3 games (Bejeweled, Candy Crush Saga).  This is an excellent value to shoot for in any case – in my experience it’s the single most important value in game design in general – but is particularly useful in dealing with some of the unique qualities of Glass.  It is appropriate that Einstein himself said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”  An excellent guideline for Glassware developers and game designers everywhere.

Four other principles come from the developer documents:

Design for Glass – Don’t pull in concepts from other media, devices and assume they’ll work (more on this below).

Don’t Get in the Way – Be there for the user when they want it, out of the way when they don’t.  The presentation cited the use of audio cues to say there is information (e.g. email) available instead of just popping a visual up.  We’re much better at ignoring sounds we know aren’t important than images that suddenly appear in front of us, and scientific studies have shown we are more than twice as responsive to movement in our peripheral vision (presumably because that’s where predators would first be seen).

Avoid the Unexpected – I’ve heard this amended to “unexpected negatives” as a pleasant surprise can be desirable, and from a game design standpoint that fits in well with basic rules like “don’t penalize the player”.  Randomness and surprise in games, and entertainment in general, is like a spice – in moderation it enhances the experience and makes the banal exciting, but in excess, even a little too much can ruin it utterly.  And that’s for entertainment where we occasionally want a plot twist or change of pace.  Practical utilities and apps should be particularly careful not to spring things on the user.

Paradigm Shifting

“Just because you can do something on Glass, and it’s cool, doesn’t mean you should do it” – Timothy Jordan, Glass developer advocate

There are many ways to cater to the advantages of Glass, while downplaying or finessing its constraints.  In order to succeed, Glass developers will have to find the sweet spot – likely, more than one – for what the device lets us do that is more difficult – or better yet, impossible – on other devices.  Here are a few ideas about how Glass, either alone or in conjunction with other devices, may blaze some trails into exciting new territory.  But do be careful, some of these concepts may prove to be less promising than they seem, while others, as yet unsuspected, may prove to be the  apps that make Glass take off big time.

Face to Face

Glass is a futuristic, science fiction device.  But when it comes to games, it may be a return to the pre-computer era.  Before computers, nearly all games were played directly between people, where the people were in the same room, sharing eye contact and talking to each other (think board games or card games).  Glass, by positioning the screen out of the direct line of view, makes that kind of play possible and can in fact be even LESS intrusive than a board or hand of cards, emphasizing only the interpersonal interaction (examples in some of the game ideas below).  People played games this way for at least tens of thousands of years before computers came along – it’s going to feel natural to people and perhaps surprise them with how human it is, if we only stay out of the way.

Hands-Free Mandatory

There are many interesting applications for Glass that can make use of the features of the display always being present without having to be held, and the hands-free operation with head gestures or voice control.  Consider Glass for applications that instruct or inform the user while they are doing things like cooking, fixing a car, climbing a rock face, operating on a patient, making clay pots, digging up fossils, tying a fishing fly, carving wood, kneading bread dough, washing a dog, and so on.  Tablets or phones or computer screens can do these things too – but if you’ve ever tried doing something messy like breadmaking with a recipe on a touch screen, or had to keep craning your head to look at a screen while your oily hands were deep in a car’s guts, you know how this is not optimum.  Many of these examples cited are more educational than game-oriented, but as Marshall McLuhan said, “Anyone who makes a distinction between education and entertainment doesn’t know the first thing about either.”

Do it in the Dark

Glass can be used in total darkness – and you don’t have to worry about wondering where it is, or if using it will bother others (assuming they’re not looking right at the small image you can see from a 3rd person point of view).  This will enable some interesting applications that were never possible without being intrusive, for example one that combines the Simplicity and Humanity values is using Glass to read to a child in bed as they go to sleep.  Sure, you could do this with a tablet, or even a book and a flashlight – but the child will see the light and be distracted.  Glass lets you read a book while maintaining darkness, and even holding your child’s hand.  It would also be a great medium for subtitles (or perhaps more accurately, supertitles), synchronized to a movie so that people could watch a film together with subtitles in a dozen different languages, while those who know the language it was filmed in don’t have the distraction of any subtitles at all.  Or (on the pure entertainment side) they could provide IMDB-style tips, director’s commentary, or MST3K style satire just to those who want it.  Other dark-specific ideas below.

Judo Approach

Sometimes games have succeeded by turning their apparent weaknesses into strengths.  Early text adventures advertised how the graphics from your imagination were the best.  With the constraints and concerns listed above, we may be able to see opportunities.  For example the “Personal” factor and privacy concerns become less relevant when you are sharing with a loved one – more intimate and even romantic applications for Glass can mean that sharing one with a close friend or a lover can be seen as a sign of trust.  Similarly, the small screen size and limited battery capacity dictate quite simple and short experiences, which in turn mean significantly lower development costs than typical games.  Many of the potential drawbacks listed above can in this way become benefits.  Some more examples of this below.

First to Market Advantage

With any really new technological step forward, there are always some simple concepts that can mean a  huge advantage for the first person (or company) to implement them.  The same constraints that will make production cheaper will enhance the chance of a “little guy” being the first to come up with Glass’s equivalent of Flight Control (a very early iPhone game that was hugely successful as it made good use of a touchscreen).

Abandon Shovelware

As mentioned above, it is typical for a new platform to have old hit titles from other platforms shoveled onto it indiscriminately.  Glass isn’t immune to this, but it is in many ways so radically different than what has gone before that shovelware simple won’t work or will have severe limitations.  I’ll pick on a single app here, the “Battleship” game implemented with Glass that is technically impressive perhaps, but significantly less satisfying and more cumbersome than the same game played with a pencil and paper.  Even popular mobile phone games that on the surface might be great ways to pass the time while waiting at the doctor’s office will prove to be problematic because of the screen size, limited touch capabilities, or battery life.  So it may be tempting to just port your phone game – but consider everything mentioned to this point and tread carefully!

Specific Sample Concepts

In addition to the concepts mentioned above, here are more ideas presented in order to illustrate the guidelines suggested, not to constrain developers.  Many of these concepts are just fragments, pieces of games or apps that could be adapted and extended into full products.

Storyteller

As mentioned above, Glass is great for telling a story in the dark – and in addition to reading cheerful bedtime stories to a sleepy child, telling scary stories around the embers of a fire, or in total darkness could be a fun alternative, and of course quick and inexpensive to implement.

Werewolf/Mafia variants

This is a style of game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game) involves a group of people playing together.  Glass could introduce interesting variants, with a single player using Glass to moderate (given a special role, or special “magic” abilities like seeing a glow in the direction (simple left/right based on players sitting in a circle) of the nearest Werewolf.

Murder Mysteries

A popular but limited type of roleplaying game is the “Host Your Own Murder Mystery Party” genre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_mystery_game .  With Glass-equipped participants, this genre could break out into the mainstream by giving each participant secret information about their character or others, synchronizing “reveal” events, and providing realtime tips on how to stay in character and what to say.  Or similarly, if one character is “possessed by a spirit” that can move around to the others and inform them they must now do what they see in the Glass display until the spirit releases them, you could have a very fun but spooky “who is possessed now?” game.

Improv Games

A whole series of theater games become possible when two people have Glass.  Consider the comedy trope of a dialog that consists entirely of descriptions of lines:

Drill Sergeant: “Enthusiastic call to pointless task”

Private: “Resigned, but polite compliance, veiled sarcasm”

Drill Sergeant: “Criticism of attitude – suggestion of dire consequences”

Private: “Loud, eager agreement – and muttered insult”

Level 1 – each person reads this line as it appears in their screen, giving it their best inflection and feeling.  Good party game and others waiting to play can vote on who gives the best performance.

Level 2 – each person has to improvise a line to fit the description, e.g the Drill Sergeant first says “All right soldier, let’s see you do clean the latrine with your toothbrush”.  To which the Private responds, “Yes sir, you’re the military expert!”  Infinitely replayable, requires a bit more imagination and acting skill.

In either case there can be dozens of dialogs with hundreds of pre-programmed variations, crafted by writers to maximize fun and humor (which was not the case in this example!).  Many variants ala “Whose Line is it Anyway?” or other improv games, with Glass acting as the moderator, and every session different.  Done well, this could be a new implementation of the gameplay present in popular games from “Apples to Apples” to “Charades” to  “Cards Against Humanity”.

The Stars in your Eyes

Planetarium shows can be a bit dull and pedantic.  But the stars, and the stories behind constellations, the planets visible on a given night, the curious history of how they were discovered, or named – that can be fascinating.  Imagine a Glass app where you began by lining up a crosshairs with the center of the moon or some other celestial body – the brightest star, Venus, it could change depending on the circumstances – and tap to align.  The Pitch and Yaw sensing would work well with Astronomy’s RA and declination measurements.  Then as you turn your head, Glass provides an ongoing show and narration, telling you stories of the night sky and ancient Greek legends, showing little animations of the constellations to help you see the shapes, pointing out that the ISS is going overhead, follow the arrow, no, look up a bit… there!  Fun on your own, but you also become an instant expert to go out at night with your friends and tell them what Glass is whispering in your ear.  Some cell phones do similar things now – but only at the expense of ruining your night vision and distracting others around you, something Glass can avoid.  And with the special telescopic version available in 2015, you can… oh, that’s another story.

Other Side of the World

Similarly to the previous concept, what if you (ala Google Goggles) could let glass direct you to turn your head and see an icon for your Grandmother in Manitoba when you were looking in her direction, or let you face Mecca, or Jerusalem, or Graceland!  Could also just be a way of helping make you feel more connected as you do a video chat or phone call.

Here and Now

Making use of the Google Now capabilities and direct links to news items, the player with Glass makes a series of statements, and other players have to vote on whether they are true or not.  The twist is, sometimes the Glass player sees information to repeat, like “there are 3 Italian restaurants within half a mile of your position” or “Jennifer Aniston was just caught coming out of a Beverly Hills hotel with Brad Pitt”.  Sometimes it will just say, “Make something up”.  Varies of course based on where you are playing, what is happening that day, or even that hour.

Conclusion

Glass is an amazing device, with a lot of potential for truly new forms of games and other entertainment, as well as some excellent learning apps.  With a few precautions to avoid the potential shoals, there are some wonderful Blue Oceans out there to explore!(source:gamasutra)