Already taking America by storm, uDraw was released in the UK on Friday after a three month wait. For those of you who don't know what uDraw is, we posted a preview from way back when, when we first heard about uDraw, and how it plans to get children (and adults) all over the world interested in drawing again. Essentially a block of white plastic that your Wii Remote slots into, uDraw basically works in the same way as a DS touch screen, letting you draw on your TV, by drawing on the graphics tablet in front of you. Coming bundled with a paint program, it's the perfect antidote to painty finger prints and crayons embedded in your carpet.
A few days before the launch, we travelled down to London to get a hands-on go on the nifty new peripheral and interview children's illustrator, Korky Paul, and Wayne Cline, the Project Manager for uDraw:
Everybody Plays: We've just been speaking to Korky upstairs about how great this is going to be for getting kids involved with drawing. I know in America you have a website set up that has regular challenges and competitions - is there a similar thing planned for the UK?
Wayne Cline: That's a great question, but not for me I'm afraid. I actually helped build it, so the marketing/PR side is sort of out of my scope. There'll be a number of interesting announcements over the next few weeks
So what role did you play with uDraw?
I'm the project manager, so I worked closely with the hardware group to design and come up with the final features and software, overseeing the production of both.
From what we've seen, it's an amazing concept, basically marrying the Touch Screen accessibility of the DS to the Wii?
You've seen games before that allow you to draw with the Wii by trying to point at the screen, and it's very hard to do unless your a surgeon or something - you're not that steady. And you find that everybody - kids, no matter what age - understand that pen to paper feeling. Kids play with crayons and uDraw just translates that experience onto the Wii - I always joke it also gets rid of messy paper and pencils and crayons all over the living room floor.
In terms of the software, are third parties (companies other than THQ) going to be developing for this?
We've had some interest in it. We're currently in the process of working out a method for how it'll work. We do have the Software Development Kit that'll allow them to write for the GameTablet, but we do want to sort of open it up and allow people to develop for it, because great ideas come from anywhere.
In the right hands, uDraw can produce some amazing results
We've seen the initial launch line-up - can buyers be assured that there's a long list of games from THQ in development that just haven't been announced yet?
Absolutely. Actually, out there we've got Sponge Bob Squiggle Pants, which is the next game coming, but we certainly have a robust software plan for the next few years. We definitely plan on continuing to support it and continuing to come up with new ideas and ways to use the Tablet in games. We're sure we'll be coming up with a whole host of new games to highlight all the different features the Tablet has.
In terms of hardware as well, I can only imagine the level of focus testing that goes into something like this?
Yeah, we did a lot of not only survey research, but also usability testing, for both ease of use and it's features - we had not only families, but little kids from four to twelve. It's very sturdy - it's actually got honeycombing inside of it for strength, and we had a producer (not me, a lighter one) stand on it and jump up and down on it. We also had a ten year old girl try to break it by pulling the stylus out, but she couldn't do it. It's really well made device. Every production unit that comes off the line - goes through a thirty six point robotic arm test, basically jabbing the stylus tip into the drawing surface and pushing the buttons and all that stuff. Go on - stand on it!
We look at each other nervously, and eventually the PR volunteers to stand on the board. She does, and it emerges completely unscathed, colouring us impressed.
I guess the sturdiness is the one thing parents might worry about when they're buying a graphics tablet, as they are traditionally very expensive, very breakable, very fragile, and not the sort of thing you usually let kids lose with, but this obviously is fine.
In fact, I saw an article that said that one of the number one requested gifts was the iPad, but what I didn't see was how many parents actually went through with it and bought their kid one, because that's a huge investment to give a five or six year old. But you do see that kids are very comfortable with the iPad, and again, I think that goes to show the same thing I was mentioning earlier - they've just become so accustomed to the language of software, growing up from day one with technology. Because every time something new is invented, it's new to us, and we're like 'Oh my God, it's so cool', but with kids it just becomes part of their lives - it's amazing.
uDraw Studio, the software the game comes bundled with, even has a colouring book mode.
So this is something that kids pick up really easily and pretty quickly then?
You know, I was very surprised when we did the usability tests and even four year olds were able to use it. What surprised me was that the understand the language of software, so when we said to the kids 'how do you think you would save something?' and they would just immediately go to the folder. I didn't know they'd know all that - I was like 'don't ask them that! They won't know how to do it!', and they immediately knew how to do it. You find that all they really need to learn is that it's a true x,y co-ordinate - I think, initially, they might try to use it as a mouse, as opposed to a true x,y co-ordinate, but after about thirty seconds, and you see this nod and this moment of understanding where they get it and go 'OK', and they're off.
I know what you mean - it's a fairly complex thing, the uDraw Studio, with lots of options and lots of features that let you draw some pretty amazing pictures with it, but at the same time it's nicely accessible for children to come and pick up?
Yes, it's very simple to get into, and it sort of can be as deep as they want it to be. So Studio, which will come bundled with the Tablet is immediately accessible to everybody, and then Pictionary - which is, as you know, a great family fun night game - everybody at least already knows the rules, making it easy to pick up and play. We also have a great game mode called Pictionary Mania, separate from the Classic Pictionary, where, instead of the pieces of the board being clue-based, they're actually draw mode-based. You have things like 'One Line', where you can't lift the stylus or else your drawing ends, and 'Ink Limit', where the ink will run out, so you have to be very concise with what you want to draw. There's also a game mode called 'Rotation Frustration', where the canvas will rotate as you're trying to draw, so your drawing's going upside down as your team's trying to guess. Dood's Big Adventure is a platformer, but there's quite a number of elements of the game - including the main character - that you can customise and draw as you see fit.
How does that work - can you just draw your own stuff and it sort of comes to life and works?
We save the texture that you draw. The Dood's actually a 3D model - sort of like a vinyl figure - so he's just plain white at the beginning, and then you can rotate him round and draw on him, and that texture just gets saved to the model, and then you can just put him into the game and off you go. Both Dood and the bad guys can be customised, as well as these things called 'Balloonimals', which are floating balloon animals - if you leave them white, they just sort of gently float there, but as you draw them in they'll animate much more. And then all the different obstacles - the doors and things that can set him back - things we refer to as 'doodads' can be customised too.
Dood's Big Adventure - keep on rolling.
So Dood's Big Adventure is like the biggest, more traditional game in the uDraw line-up?
Yes, it's more of a gamer's game. It's very much a platformer, but still gives that outlet for creativity. There's four game modes - there's 'Pen Panic', 'Roly Poly', 'Bubble Trouble' and 'Fan Frenzy'. 'Roly Poly' actually uses the motion control to tilt the Dood and roll him round in a sort of hamster ball; in 'Fan Frenzy' the Dood gets trapped in a balloon and, using the stylus as a fan, you can blow him around, and the harder you push - because the stylus tip is pressure sensitive - the harder the fan will blow. There's fifteen levels per game mode, so there's sixty levels in total, and there's over twenty doodads, eleven (I think) balloonimals to customise, and three enemies - [all of which you can] customise. What's really cool is the gallery that you can go to, where you'll find all the characters you've customised, sort of pointing out the screen and looking at the player, snickering at them and elbowing each other and things like that.
We haven't seen much of Dood's Big Adventure, but we saw a lot of Pictionary, and I've played the DS one as well. How's that differ from the uDraw one?
With Pictionary, they're the same clues and the same game modes, but Pictionary DS actually has a single player mode, where the DS will actually draw the clue in, and you have to try and guess what it is by typing it in - but other than that they're the same game. Pictionary for the Wii is much more meant for the family or friends - there's no limit on the number of people who can play - except the size of your living room - but there can only be up to four teams.
You just need the one Tablet as well?
Yes - it's just a pass and play game
In terms of the actual uDraw tablet, does that have a built in motion sensor, or does it just use the Wii Remote one?
It uses the Wii Remote's motion sensor. The connector is actually the same as you have for the Nunchuck - it even runs off the same chip - and the buttons on the stylus are actually emulating the buttons on the Nunchuck. So we actually take quite a big advantage of the Wii Remote and the communication with the Wii itself.
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uDraw is out now, and you can buy the GameTablet and uDraw Studio bundle for £50, with Pictionary and Dood's Big Adventure weighing in at a budget-tastic £20 - much cheaper than an iPad, as Wayne pointed out!
