This game uses an analog stick to simulate the flowing feel of calligraphic writing. Each level consists of a rap written in calligraphy, which the player must "write" with the stick in the appropriate rhythm. A voice synthesizer reads the rap as it is written. Players can compose their own raps.

More photos and extended summary are available on Robin Hunicke's page. (Photo on this page taken by Robin. It is a photograph of the game being played on a projection screen, so it does not represent the image quality of the final game).

Many interesting mods have sprung up for Warcraft 3. Dave talked about three of the most interesting ones: Tower Defense, Sheep Tag, and Aeon of Strife. From a game design point of view, designers of the rather tired RTS genre seem to be getting their asses kicked by mod makers. (The picture here is from Tower Defense; see e.g. this download site.)

Fairy Dust is a puzzle game in which controls are focused on specifying the rules of a simulation, rather than the juxtaposition of objects within one. Players manipulate configurations of particles in a field by programming nanobots with search and replace style 'rewrite' rules. Each rule consists of coupled 5x5 search and replace patterns that are dynamically painted by players. Every occurrence, in the game field, of a rule's search pattern is re-configured to it's respective replacement pattern. This game is an exploration of the relationships among different combinations of rules, and of how players manage the responsibility of programming for play.

M.A.D. Countdown is a location-based game. Players use PDAs on a wireless network to solve clues and defuse a bomb hidden in a building. In addition to the real-world physical floors of the building, there's a "virtual floor"; player activity crosses back and forth between the real setting and the virtual one. The official web site is here (Warning: mandatory Flash-based fullscreen browser action).

The rock climbing game is an experiment in direct control over a human body and its limbs. Instead of laying an abstract interface over the motions of a body, we allow the player to drag and position limbs directly, with a "body knowledge" subsystem that will [hopefully] keep the climber moving in an intuitive and predictably human way. The goal is to capture the rhythm of movement and stress/relief cycles of rock climbing.

Chris also talked about Robot Alchemic Drive (RAD), a game by Enix. [Here is the game's official web site.] RAD uses an interesting direct-control system, where individual sticks and buttons control the mech's arms and legs. The game successfully achieves a sense of scale lacking in other games about big things.

Galstaff attempts to leverage the analog nature of mouse gestures as a control medium. The gesture recognition measures various analog properties of the shape you draw, using them to control parameters of the spell. Spells become versatile, malleable things, and the player retains a degree of nuance in control. However, this freedom creates several challenges in game design; these challenges were the meat of the discussion.