3
O ver the last two years, a handful of companies have challenged the gaming industry’s latent assump- tion that girls and technology don’t mix. In doing so, they have begun to reach a huge, previously untapped market—19 million preteen and teenage North American girls, who spend more than $50 billion annu- ally. In late 1995, Her Interactive (then a small start-up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and now led by a team of for- mer Microsoft executives in Bellevue, Washington), released McKenzie & Co., the first CD-ROM specifically for girls (see Figure 1). By the end of 1996, there were 15 girls’ software titles, including Mattel’s tremendous- ly popular Barbie Fashion Designer. As of November 1997, at least 31 girls’ games had made it to the market. Despite a diversity of aesthetic styles and themes— from vampires to self-help to history—these titles have more in common than pink packaging. All are based on research indicating that girls at play want something essentially different from the action games that boys like—in terms of both content and graphics. Not just hair play Not surprisingly, some girls’ titles have carried tradi- tional—even stereotypical—aspects of girls’ play into the digital world. The most pervasive of these is what Mattel calls “hair play”—endless styling and restyling of a doll’s hair. Mattel’s Barbie Magic Hair Styler brings this activity into 3D, and hair play is rampant in other products as well. In Girl Games’ Let’s Talk About Me, for example, the “Hairmaster 2000” lets players scan in their own faces and experiment with more than 600 hairstyles in multiple colors. Nonetheless, research has confirmed that girls’ inter- ests reach beyond the virtual salon. Studies by Interval Research Corporation, the University of British Columbia, Rice University, and Girl Games all reached similar conclusions: Girls prefer several open-ended activities rather than just one conclusive goal, social interaction on the screen, fully developed characters and stories, challenges, and creativity. Purple Moon—a girl’s entertainment company that spun out from Interval Research—mirrors these prior- ities in its “friendship adventures.” In Secret Paths in the Forest (see Figure 2), players help characters work through typical teenage-girl problems: fitting in at school, for example, and feeling comfortable with their bodies. Players also navigate through dreamy gardens, solving puzzles to complete a necklace of magical stones that eventually reveals a secret message. For Secret Paths and Rockett’s New School, the art team consisted of more than 20 artists, both in house and from Convivial Design of San Francisco. Working on the Macintosh platform, the artists created digital story- boards with Adobe’s Photoshop, Premiere, and Painter, and used Equilibrium’s DeBabelizer with cus- tom palettes. For future releases, Purple Moon will use SoftImage’s Toonz to maintain art consistency across scenes and titles. Both friendship adventures use light, 2D animation to make it easy for players to imagine themselves as the characters, something that Interval Research discovered was important to girls. “Video is too defined, too real for girls to project themselves into that narrative uni- verse,” said Karen Gould, Public Relations Manager. Research also Margaret Weatherford 0272-1716/98/$10.00 © 1998 IEEE Beyond the Virtual Salon—Software Games for Girls __ About the Cover 4 January/February 1998 1 Her Interactive’s McKenzie & Co., a high-school role-playing game, alter- nates full- motion video with 2D activity modules that let the player choose her outfit, hairstyle, and makeup for the prom. © 1995 Her Interactive .

Beyond The Virtual Salon - software Games For Girls

  • Upload
    m

  • View
    212

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Over the last two years, a handful of companies havechallenged the gaming industry’s latent assump-

tion that girls and technology don’t mix. In doing so,they have begun to reach a huge, previously untappedmarket—19 million preteen and teenage NorthAmerican girls, who spend more than $50 billion annu-ally.

In late 1995, Her Interactive (then a small start-up inAlbuquerque, New Mexico and now led by a team of for-mer Microsoft executives in Bellevue, Washington),released McKenzie & Co., the first CD-ROM specificallyfor girls (see Figure 1). By the end of 1996, there were15 girls’ software titles, including Mattel’s tremendous-ly popular Barbie Fashion Designer. As of November 1997,at least 31 girls’ games had made it to the market.

Despite a diversity of aesthetic styles and themes—from vampires to self-help to history—these titles havemore in common than pink packaging. All are based onresearch indicating that girls at play want somethingessentially different from the action games that boyslike—in terms of both content and graphics.

Not just hair playNot surprisingly, some girls’ titles have carried tradi-

tional—even stereotypical—aspects of girls’ play intothe digital world. The most pervasive of these is what

Mattel calls “hair play”—endless styling and restylingof a doll’s hair. Mattel’s Barbie Magic Hair Styler bringsthis activity into 3D, and hair play is rampant in otherproducts as well. In Girl Games’ Let’s Talk About Me, forexample, the “Hairmaster 2000” lets players scan intheir own faces and experiment with more than 600hairstyles in multiple colors.

Nonetheless, research has confirmed that girls’ inter-ests reach beyond the virtual salon. Studies by IntervalResearch Corporation, the University of BritishColumbia, Rice University, and Girl Games all reachedsimilar conclusions: Girls prefer several open-endedactivities rather than just one conclusive goal, socialinteraction on the screen, fully developed charactersand stories, challenges, and creativity.

Purple Moon—a girl’s entertainment company thatspun out from Interval Research—mirrors these prior-ities in its “friendship adventures.” In Secret Paths in theForest (see Figure 2), players help characters workthrough typical teenage-girl problems: fitting in atschool, for example, and feeling comfortable with theirbodies. Players also navigate through dreamy gardens,solving puzzles to complete a necklace of magical stonesthat eventually reveals a secret message.

For Secret Paths and Rockett’s New School, the art teamconsisted of more than 20 artists, both in house and from

Convivial Design of San Francisco.Working on the Macintosh platform,the artists created digital story-boards with Adobe’s Photoshop,Premiere, and Painter, and usedEquilibrium’s DeBabelizer with cus-tom palettes. For future releases,Purple Moon will use SoftImage’sToonz to maintain art consistencyacross scenes and titles.

Both friendship adventures uselight, 2D animation to make it easyfor players to imagine themselves asthe characters, something thatInterval Research discovered wasimportant to girls. “Video is toodefined, too real for girls to projectthemselves into that narrative uni-verse,” said Karen Gould, PublicRelations Manager. Research also

MargaretWeatherford

0272-1716/98/$10.00 © 1998 IEEE

Beyond the Virtual Salon—Software Games for Girls __

About the Cover

4 January/February 1998

1 HerInteractive’sMcKenzie & Co.,a high-schoolrole-playinggame, alter-nates full-motion videowith 2D activitymodules that letthe playerchoose heroutfit, hairstyle,and makeup forthe prom.

© 1

995

Her

Inte

ract

ive

.

showed that girls have a romanti-cized view of nature, which con-tributed to Secret Paths’ soft art style.

As well as providing girl-friendlyactivities and themes, many currentreleases capitalize on books, movies,and characters that are alreadyfamiliar to girls and their parents.The Learning Company’s AmericanGirls Premiere, for instance, lever-ages the huge popularity of thePleasant Company’s line of educa-tional books, dolls, and accessories.

The two-CD-ROM set provides aframework in which girls write anddirect plays starring the AmericanGirls—extensively researched char-acters from five different eras in UShistory. Players choose among his-torically accurate settings, costumes,props, and background music. Thenthey add lighting, record or type indialogue, and choose gestures,actions, and emotions to accompanyeach line. When the play is complete,players either watch blue-screenvideo characters perform it (seeFigure 3) or print the script and actout the play themselves.

To develop the graphics for TheAmerican Girls Premiere, LearningCompany artists used Macintoshcomputers and software tools includ-ing Photoshop, Premiere, AfterEffects, and DeBabelizer. They thenplaced all the artwork into a custom-code engine to create the game.

Though the settings are flat piecesof artwork, the art team designedthem with priority masking so thatthe blue-screen characters can movebehind certain elements during theplay. According to the game’s pro-ducer, Jean Sharp, maintaining cor-rect scale while the characters moveabout the stage was one of the artteam’s crucial goals. Other impor-tant graphic factors were historicalaccuracy, perspective, and a unifor-mity in lighting among pieces of artcreated by different artists.

Girlifying the graphicsIn addition to recurring play pat-

terns and activities, girls’ gamesdemonstrate a noteworthy graphicsimilarity: a lack of the 3D animationpopular in boys’ games. According tothe games’ creators, it wasn’t eco-nomics that influenced these choic-es, but taste. Girls don’t want a convincing karate kick;they want dynamic, expressive faces (see Figure 4).

Barbary Brunner, Director of Product Developmentfor Her Interactive, said that focus groups of girls per-

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 5

2 PurpleMoon’s SecretPaths in theForest inter-sperses 2D-animatedmonologueswith journeysthrough fancifullandscapes.

© 1

997

Purp

le M

oon

© 1

997

Purp

le M

oon

© 1

997

The

Lear

ning

Com

pan

y

3 For TheAmerican GirlsPremiere CD-ROM, TheLearningCompany choseblue-screenvideo to bringits characters tolife withinhistoricallyaccurate set-tings.

4 Graphicsfrom PurpleMoon’s Rockett’sNew School aretypical of thegirl gamesgenre: 2D char-acters with lotsof personality.

.

suaded the company not to use 3D animation. “The girlsdidn’t respond particularly well to the 3D animatedcharacters,” she said, “because you can’t really renderfaces beautifully.”

For its new Nancy Drew mystery series, a chief pro-ject for 1998, Her Interactive will use neither the full-motion nor the blue-screen video of its previous releases.Instead, the new series will use traditional 2D anima-tion within 3D settings (see Figure 5).

“We’re getting the same variety of expressiveness fora lot less disk space with the 2D animated characters,”said Brunner. McKenzie & Co., which used extensive full-motion video, is a five-CD-ROM game; Nancy Drew willbe smaller, lessening disk swapping. “And I have to saythat the girls just went bananas over the 2D animation,”Brunner concluded.

To produce the graphics for the Nancy Drew series,Her Interactive is using an in-house art departmentunder the direction of 2D artist Laura Henion, former-ly of Mind’s Eye Graphics. The department includes

three artists producing the nodesand backgrounds, additional 2Dartists, and a 3D artist working in 3DStudio Max. The character anima-tion will be done out of house byKaren Johnson Productions ofRacine, Wisconsin.

Christine Donadio, Producer ofClueless, agreed that 3D renderingwasn’t the right choice for the kindsof activities in Girl Games’ products,either. In Clueless, the interactivecloset, clothes design, and makeovermodules allow players to scan andalter images of clothes and faces,and then to combine them with thegame’s existing images. “Everyone’salways excited about trying to dosome 3D stuff, or maybe some VRstuff,” says Donadio, “but the two-dimensional graphics really fit whatwe were trying to do.”

Except for photographic imagestaken from the television series, allthe artwork in Clueless was done inFreehand and Photoshop by teamsmartyPants! of Austin, Texas. Theart team used DeBabelizer to buildthe animations, and Girl Games putthe entire program together inDirector.

Barbie, however, bucks the 2Dtrend. Barbie Fashion Designer, oneof the earliest girls’ software games,combines a 2D design module witha 3D animated finale, in whichBarbie and her friends traipse therunway, modeling the player’s cre-

ations. In the latest release, Barbie Ocean Explorer, theheart of the game takes place in 3D (see Figure 6).Barbie and her dolphin pal Sandy explore the sea floor,searching for lost treasure to donate to the Marine LifeLeague. Barbie swims and twirls gracefully in 3D. Herhair ripples in the current.

Always the hair.

Pocketbook powerThe market for girls’ software is not merely viable; it

is vigorous. Since 1995, sales of girls’ software gameshave gone from nearly zero to $30 million annually. PCData reports that for the first half of 1997 Barbie FashionDesigner ranked ninth in sales among all PC games. TheAmerican Girls Premiere was the top-selling home-edu-cation software product in October 1997, the monthafter its release. Given these figures after a mere twoyears—and the enthusiasm and creativity of the com-panies pursuing the market—it looks like girls are in fora lot of activity-oriented, open-ended fun. ■

About the Cover

6 January/February 1998

5 Settings forHer Interactive’sforthcomingNancy Drew willbe similar instyle to thosefrom TheVampire Diaries,shown here.Graphics-renderingsoftware forthese back-grounds includ-ed SoftImageand Photoshop. ©

199

7 H

er In

tera

ctiv

199

7 M

atte

l Med

ia

6 Extensive useof 3D anima-tion, as inMattel’s BarbieOcean Explorer,is rare amonggirls’ games.

.