Lionhead's mysterious young boy makes his first appearance since 2009.
Milo isn't dead, but the snail the little digital boy splattered this afternoon at the TEDGlobal 2010 conference sure as hell is.
After a mini-PR campaign launched by Microsoft revealed that Lionhead Studios is still developing the Milo project, the Kinect-controlled simulation has now had its first public demonstration since E3 2009.
At TED, Peter Molyneux took the stage and allowed a demonstrator to show off the curious title for those in attendance. According to Wired UK's coverage, a few different scenes were shown, one being the inside of a house, where the demonstrator had Milo clean up his bedroom. Another was outside by a pond, where the player was asked to teach the boy how to skip stones. The best one, of course, was outside in an area with snails, where the aforementioned murder of mollusks occurred.
Kill the bucket, Milo. Kill it. == TEASER ==Molyneux said no one's Milo will be the same. Mine will certainly be different. I can't wait to teach my Milo how to dispose of bodies, operate by a strict code, and lead a double life in a posh Miami flat. (It all starts with this kind of innocent snail-smashing stuff, you know.)
As Joystiq points out, a more traditional narrative structure for Milo--which is now being called properly Milo and Kate--was also revealed during the demonstration. The game will revolve around a Milo who has just moved and wants to explore his new surroundings. You'll be in charge of assisting him and, if you want, turning his digital boy brain to mush.
Oh, and speaking of Milo's brain? Apparently, it'll be stored in a cloud of some sort. I'm pretty sure this is how Judgment Day starts. Or Mad Max. I forgot which.
Wonder if Milo has sub-consious activation code words that make hims spy on governments,kill presidents or brick other peoples xbox? If i wanted to have little kids talking crap on my Xbox i wouldn't mute everyone on MW2.
The first video can not not have been scripted. If it wasn't scripted then it means the kid doing Milo's voice has read out each word in a dictionary multiple times (with different intonations). That's next to impossible and would require an IMMENSE budget
Given Molyneux's long history of undelivered promises (going all the way back to Black and White), I suspect the thing only looks impressive when the person demoing the game knows exactly what to say and do. I doubt it really functions as a game. Still, it's an interesting idea. But an interesting idea isn't enough. I just remember thinking that Molyneux's ideas for Fable 2 (getting married and having a family, etc) were interesting. But the result was wooing a wife in a few minutes by making fart noises.
Promises mean nothing. I need to see real footage of it being played by someone who hasn't been coached before I believe it's anything but a glorified tech demo.
So is this suppose to be some Kinect version of Tamagotchi? That's the impression I'm getting of being in charge of digital " pet ", wonder if maybe you can give him a gun and have him shoot up the place. Possibilities of evil misdeeds could be endless.
Normally TED conferences make their way online, so no doubt we will be able to watch this demonstration some time on the near future. I'm still interested in how this can be developed.
@Olivaw: I agree. I wonder if anyone there actually gave a shit. I would love to hear molyneux talk about his regular game design philosophies, but this just seems completely uninteresting.
@natetodamax: I don't want to know what Molyneux concocted for that particular incident. But what if the kinect doesn't recognize that part of the anatomy? Good by glorious adult games :(
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