Indigo Prophecy and the Outer Limits of Interfacing

Something that struck me odd while playing Indigo Prophecy recently is how atypical, and typical the interface is. As I learned last week, when I tried explaining how Indigo Prophecy pushed and tested the limits of rules, I received a quick bitch slap from the God of Gaming who quickly waved a finger in my face, told me I wouldn't get into heaven and then went back to playing Katamari. Keeping that in mind, Indigo Prophecy does do a bit of things rather uniquely so instead of creating dodgingly (yes, I made that up) long paragraphs, I'm simply going to cover all the different uses of interface in a quick, almost "definition" format.

Manual Interfaces
No, that doesn't refer to your pool boy who has the ability to shapeshift, it refers to the hardware-based "input devices that players interact with physically to play the game." In the case of Indigo Prophecy, I was playing the PS2 version which meant I spent a great deal of time looking over the instructions to figure out how the game was played. As explained by Novak, your Ps2 controller has your triggers, your D-Pad, your two Analog sticks, your select and start button and your action buttons.

As explained in an early post, the game moves back and forth between two types of gameplay: adventure P&C and action sequences. For the dialogue parts of the game, the left analog stick controllers the players movement, and the right controls the camera (something that every game should learn and use). However, if you approach an interactive object or person, pushing the right analog stick up, down, right, or left, allows you to interact with these objects. During interrogation this becomes time based. Let's say your interviewing someone, you have ten seconds to pick a choice, and moving the analog stick in any of the four directions allows you to ask a specific question. When you go into an action sequence, the D-Pads become the primary use, as the "Simon Says" style game play takes over. For instance, if the left button on the left circle highlights, you move the left analog stick to the left. If the up button on the right circle highlights, you move the right analog stick up. This, in an awkward comparison, makes the game not unlike Guitar hero, as you press the corresponding buttons to complete the song, pressing the corresponding buttons completes an action sequence.


Active and Passive Interface
Unlike my own anger problem, games have both active and passive interfaces. As Novak explains, one type of "active interface includes a menue system, which is usually easy accessible throughout the game - even if it isn't always visible."

In Indigo Prophecy this interface is rather weird. When you first load up the game, it loads to the menu screen giving options not unlike a DVD menu, including "Play Movie", "Select Chapter", "Extras", "Settings", "Credits", etc. In Quantic Dream's attempt to convince the player that this is an interactive movie, they go even further. When you pause while in gameplay, it brings you to a screen that has three options "Play", "Stop", and "Exit". There really isn't a save button, which isn't crucial really since the game saves automatically for you, leaving off at whatever point you quit. Ironically enough, this also covers my subject of Start Screen Interface.

It's passive interface, which Novak describes as one the player cannot change or interact with, is not unlike any other game. The game is presented in widescreen, your mental health bar is in the right corner, which changes based on your interactions (think of it as your heath bar). Also, when your in action sequences, you have a series of glowing circles in the top left corner of the screen. If you fail a part of an action sequence, you lose on glowing circle, which puts you back at the beginning of that specific part of the sequence. If you lose all of the glowing circles, you fail the sequence. However, I'm not quite sure what happens there, as I've never completely failed. I'd assume that it resets you to the beginning of the sequence. Believe it or not, my next section was going to cover Life and Power Interfaces, but as you can see, I just did that, so moving onward!



Map
Like this is a freeroaming world game, there is no map!

Adventure Game Specific Interfacing
As Novak describes it, in the adventure game, the players goals are "moving through the world, communicating with other characters, and collecting objects in a way that will not interfere with the sense of immersion." Indigo Prophecy works just like this, as for the most part all you do is explore the world and try to uncover its hidden secrets.

Save-Game Options
For the most part, unless you are right in the middle of an action sequence, the game uses what Novak calls the "Auto Save" function. As she describes it, it allows "the most immersion" for the player. As you play the game, you play a series of three characters, and this each time you play as one, you have a specific task to complete before you can advance. As you progress through the chapters, each chapter lets you pick which character you want to play first, whether its Lucas, Carla, Tyler, or Lucas' brother Marcus. For instance, at one point when you pick Tyler you have to complete an action sequence playing basketball. Once that is completed, it returns to the selection screen, game saved. However, that's not to say that you can't go back and replay levels. On the menu screen there is the option to play previous levels.


Overall
Indigo Prophecy uses a very intuitive interface, very simplistic not leaving much thinking or understanding to the player. It's not like The Witcher where you have to read the thickest manual in the world or even as complex as the active interface in WOW where you have to pick which spells to apply, what outfits to wear, when to change your diaper, etc. Its simplicity works very well, and perhaps the most complicated part of the game is learning the control schematics, however even this only takes a moments time. Does the interface stick to the wall? Sure, its simple, it works, its everything an adventure gamer would want. However, there are complaints about the action sequences, considering you don't actually get to control your character, you just play Simon Says until your character has completed the action for you. A friend of mine was particularly disappointed when he was able to play basketball, but merely watch while the two characters played it out on screen. But hey, its different.