A game that was curiously missing from E3 was Mad Doc‘s Spellweaver. According to a small article in the May 2005 issue of Computer Games, Spellweaver is an RPG that uses voice recognition to cast spells and issue party commands. To me this feels like a natural progression of the genre. Instead of being satisfied with the impersonal click of an icon or execution of a macro, uttering the words themselves should add an entirely new dimension to the gameplay. Unless you’re self conscious or something.

This kind of player interfacing was attempted with Konami’s Lifeline last year. The game put you in control of the main character’s escape from some kind of space station, using only your voice to guide her out of each encounter. It resulted in critical indifference or players screaming at their televisions in response to the poorly implemented design. Arx Fatalis took a different approach to spellcasting with their mouse-stroke system, allowing players to at least “feel” like they’re casting a spell.

Mad Doc Software intends to push this interaction even further. Spells are cast by uttering simple, phonetic words in combination. Because the words have no basis in the English language, it makes it a lot easier to localize the game. Not to mention adds to the fantasy of the situation. You will also be able to issue voice commands to the party, though given the success rate of most RPG/RTS pathfinding this may just be adding another layer of complexity. I’m also wondering how chaotic it will be to verbally issue commands to your party even if the game is paused.

The question I have is about gauging spell success. What happens if you mispronounce the words, get them in the wrong order, or take too long to speak them? I would like to see some kind of backfire effect. Immediate feedback adds immersion to this feature, instead of merely limiting it to a selling point. In the end, Mad Doc says that the speech commands will be optional, making me think this is just a way of apologizing in advance if the voice recognition doesn’t work.

Spellweaver will actually be the first game to use the Dungeon Siege II engine, a game whose own release has been delayed a number of times and at last check is due this August. I’ll likely be watching for both.

I have this vision of the growing demographic of obese gamers, lazing around like Jabba the Hutt defining their thumbs and/or suffering the early stages of Carpal Tunnel syndrome. Having voice controlled gameplay may seem exciting at first, but no movement is required. I’d hardly call barking into a microphone a workout. What happens to reflexes? In FPS games, that’s all it takes, really. I wonder how well a voice-activated FPS would work? Could this style of play be adapted to other genres? RTS games are also an ideal candidate, as I could easily see myself giving commands like “Build two farms” or “Four peons go mine copper”. Combat could be similarly simplified: “One squad of firebats and two squads of marines assault enemy base. Five siege tanks flank missile silos.” This is now entering the realm of the true desktop general. Suddenly I think of Ender’s Game and picture a massive army directed by children entrusted with saving the human race.

you squeal and you squelch