ABSTRACT
In the context of the overall user interface, user input is about translating a player’s physical motion into actions in the game world. A user interface is the player’s entry point into the game world. It governs how a player experiences the virtual environment, game dynamics, and underlying story put forth in a game. This forms a continual feedback loop: the player observes the game world through the rendering of some display and, based on these observations, makes a decision that is expressed through some form of user input and has an effect in the game world. We further break down the user input process into two parts: (1) the sensing of the player’s physical motion into detectable events and (2) how sensed events are translated into effects in the game. Although the second part can vary depending on the nature of a game, the sensing of the player’s motion events (through a game pad, accelerometers/Wiimote, or camera/EyeToy) is a relatively game-independent issue, which we focus on in this chapter.
