Home - New Look
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe displayed their new look Home at the Imagina conference in Monte Carlo last week. Home is a free to download online social networking game for Playstation 3, where the individual can meet other players in a 3D environment and interact on several different levels.
A large feature of Home is the ability to construct your own “apartment” within the 3D world. Once in the game, players which you have befriended can then be invited to join you in your designed space and participate in a number of activities. SCEE’s John Venables showed how multiple users could watch a virtual TV within the apartment, where user video was streamed and shared along with music coming from a radio prop in the room. The menu systems for the game are quite smartly displayed on a virtual PSP where you can do anything from teleport to different areas or customize your apartment. The original beta version of Home was released in 2006 and the designers used these beta players as a test bed for their updated layout.
From the closed beta release, the game designers realized a few faults in Home. The previous version of Home situated the players in a bubble like room where they could interact and socialize. Across one side of the room there was a large window looking out onto a wide rolling vista, surrounded by mountains. One of the problems according to SCEE’s Ron Festejo, Creative director, was that the first thing players wanted to do was get outside. He said they also found that people were confused by unfamiliar entrance points within Home and that the design didn’t read well.
The design team took this onboard and decided to overhaul the layout of the Home world. The main social area is now a town square containing what John Venables describes as “real world language,” i.e. a theatre where you can watch video clips or a bowling alley where games can be played. The changes have meant that the Home square is now less clinical without as much dead space as in the previous version. With a live demo Venables showed off these different areas which loaded quite fast and were easy to interact with.
Overall it seemed like the added time spent revamping and redesigning Home was well spent. It came across as being quite fun to play, with great opportunity for updatable content, customization and also participation from the user through the use of avatars and the personalized apartment. It also shows the potential to form a platform for Sony to promote upcoming events or games, generate revenue through targeted advertising, as well as the potential to integrate game specific content where a user is rewarded for completing a task by receiving Home bonuses.