Kung-Fu LIVE: Coming to PAX Prime & New Trailer Debut

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This is Teemu Maki-Patola from Virtual Air Guitar Company. Our team specializes in breaking new ground with motion-based gaming, and we’ve returned right here to the PlayStation.Blog after weeks of preparation ready to show off the latest trailer for Kung-Fu LIVE! Thankfully, this comes just before we head to not one, but two of the biggest fan-friendly gaming events on both sides of the Atlantic. The trailer gives PlayStation owners a taste of the epic multiplayer opportunities to pick up a controller and fight a player on-screen. It also adds insight into just how far you can take your costume ideas in Kung-Fu LIVE.

Working on the game this summer has been a non-stop fight to the finish. We’ve been balancing the physics on all of the interactive items in the new environments and everything is coming along smoothly. We’re spending a ton of time on the soon-to-be-revealed boss battles and on tuning the difficulty levels of different in-game enemies. As a big first step for motion-based gaming, the hard difficulty level will actually be challenging your fighting skills to the max.

Kung-Fu Live: Free Motion Kung-Fu Live: Anybody Can Play

As for multiplayer, it’s been one of the most fun things to test and tweak in the office. You can see the idea in the trailer with the ninja fighting the bald dude on the left and the blond guy on the right (yours truly). That’s just a taste of what you can do in this game. It can even be expanded to four players using DualShock 3 controllers against one fighter playing controller-free with nothing but his own moves in an all-out five person arena brawl! You can even see the ninja pick up a small kung-fu magazine, another guy with some soft-padded nun-chucks, and one fighter using his own boxing gloves in the game. Our patented Freemotion tracking system will work with any smaller handheld objects you’d like to use in helping to lay the smack down on screen. It’s definitely fun to experiment with whatever makes you feel ready to take on the world!

Kung-Fu Live: Get Seriously Fit!

We’ve announced that players will have the chance to go body-on with the game at Gamescom (Hall 6 – Open Booth C-033.) What we didn’t get to tell you (even though so many of you were wondering in our last post) was that Kung-Fu LIVE will also be playable at PAX Prime 2010 in Seattle, WA, September 3rd – 5th in Booth #3654. In addition to that, for anyone still looking to get a hold of those elusive, SOLD OUT 3-Day passes for PAX, they can stay tuned to our Facebook page for details from us on how to win some! You’ll have to convince us (as well as other fans on the Virtual Air Guitar Company fan page) that you’re the most BADASS fighter there is, and you’ll need to submit a photo of yourself as proof! All of the rules and details will be there on the fan page on how to win.

Kung-Fu Live: Friend Group Shot

As for the shows, we’ll be revealing many of the new enemies, new levels, boss battles, and giving the crowd a taste of multiplayer for the first time at both Gamescom and PAX. We can’t wait for you to hop into the game for yourselves, and attendees at both shows have the chance to walk away with some exclusive Kung-Fu LIVE gear! We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we promise it will help you get in the mood to show off your fighting skills. Costumes will be completely optional, but are definitely encouraged to help intimidate your enemies.

Kung-Fu Live: Ninja Weapon Kung-Fu Live: Ninja vs Players

Thanks again for checking out the trailer, and we can’t wait to see you at these shows in the coming weeks as we rapidly approach our launch on PlayStation Network this Fall!

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55 Comments

22 Author Replies

  • Lol, funny pics
    I need the move now
    Cant wait

  • Haha, cool trailer. Looks like fun to play and goof around with.

    The youtube videos of people wearing ridiculous get-ups are just around the corner. :)

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Heh! Yeah, I hope so.
      You can start by taking part in the Facebook competition to win some PAX tickets by taking an epic fighting picture of yourself.

  • That is an awesome looking trailer! This game should only be about $10.00 though! If it is, I will buy for sure!!

  • have demo at home its a fun game got my move thru houseparty,com and been haveing fun with it

  • That looks pretty cool. Hopefully there is a demo, cause I’m still feeling pretty skeptical on a lot of the Move games.

  • This is NOT a Playstation Move game, I repeat, NOT a Playstation Move game. It uses nothing but the Playstation Eye camera. Nothing confirmed about Move. Did you guys even watch the video clostley? Show me one shot that you see a Playstation Move.

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hi Jkash4,
      Yeah. We call it ‘controller-free Move title’. As you said, it uses just the camera part of the Move bundle (a normal PSEye), though.

      As an experience, its expanding the Move’s hand based controls by bringing full-body fighting with kicks, jumps, etc. to all Move and PSEye owners.

  • Gee, so the PSEye can support full-body motion tracking to play ‘controller free’ games? (of course we all had a taste of this from the EyeToy days back on the PS2)

    Now… can someone please explain to me what’s so groundbreaking and innovative about Xbox Kinect?

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      The tech we are using is quite a bit stronger than what has been used in the old EyeToy. We are doing skeleton tracking and removing your livingroom background and even other people in the image and placing you inside the gameworld under the actual game world physics etc.

      As to your Kinect question: I find it safer not to say anything. :)

  • is this game coming out this year?? please please

  • I WANT!

  • I might get this for the work out I’ll be getting. Whew!

  • Does the game have video record and youtube upload support (like PixelJunk Eden)?

  • Ok, totally getting this. I loved the original PSEye games, even though they were more about art for the most part rather than gaming. I’m really happy to see that the Move coming out is allowing the spotlight to return on the camera. Just like every other piece of tech Sony makes, it’s always way ahead of its time and it shows here. Obviously you’re not going to comment on Kinect. But I think it’s safe to say the PSEye can do what it can do on its own, no problem. And with Move coming out, mainstream might finally be able to appreciate it for the awesome piece of tech it is :D

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hi Kapbam,
      yeah. Agree. I believe Move + the camera will allow quite a range of different gaming experiences. There is accuracy, buttons and full-body interaction all in one package. Especially when devs start to understand better what works well for movement based games.

  • is it just me or does the game look cooler every time these guys post to the blog?
    good job! day 1 buy

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hey Dimaguire,
      awesomeness to hear, especially from someone who remembers the other posts as well! Many thanks!

  • LOVE IT!!!!
    I can’t wait for this title, it looks so fun.
    My two boys and me will probably make some serious family time for this game. I think it is a blast.
    Needing to lose a few pounds won’t hurt me, as I am planning make up my sumo wrestler costume. lol youtube watchout!

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Awesomeness! Thanks for the comment!
      I have seen kids really enjoy beating on their dad on the camera in multiplayer. :) There will also be different turn based competition modes.

  • do want! it’s the ultimate party game.

  • na ps3 is so crazy with these games man these are so raw

  • Where is PAX this year?
    Seattle?

  • Finally we see some good Eye toy games! we havent seen one in years……

    I wonder if u guys will support move with this one in the future?

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hi ADR143,
      We shall see. That would be of interest as long as the business side works too. We have plenty of ideas written down.

  • @airwalkinman17

    Pax is in two locations.

    Pax Prime is Seattle, the original event location. Pax East is Boston and 6 months from when Pax Prime is.

    Pax Prime is on Labor day weekend. It is the end all be all of geek video game conventions.

    Hope to see the blog and others there.

  • Can I play?

  • So you’ve basically proven that Dance Central CAN be done on the PlayStation 3. Alright Harmonix…CHECK!

    Seriously though, this has been on my radar since day one announce. I can’t even wait to get into this, have my son (age 4) check it out. He’s a big fan of Martial Arts so he’ll certainly love this.

  • Will I be able to use my Roundhouse Kick online?

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Looks like online multiplayer wont make this one. Difficult with streaming video without the latencies getting annoying.

  • Looks like fun but aaargh! What’s the sound effect at the end of the trailer where the logos appear? Is it from inFamous or something? That’s going to bug me!

  • So if i were to pick up an actual katana i have at home, i can use it as a weapon in-game? if thats thae case, that’d be AWESOME (not saying the game already isn’t awesome)!

    can’t wait to try it! Keep making it awesome guys!

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      You can use items that aren’t super long. Katana might be on the edge of that. You just have to try it! Holding it on the sides, the game may make it a bit shorter but otherwise it should work.

  • This look like you’re emulating – you know who’s – motion capture with just the PS Eye… AWSSOME!!

  • FREAKEN AWESOME!!!!!!!

    I want it now!!!!!

  • when will we see some PS Move gameplay??
    By the way AVESOME!!!

  • I like the humor and use of technology that comes with this great game, and am looking forward to the release.

    The multiplayer option is an awesome addition, as well!

    When this fall is the release date? Maybe another post (possibly revealing more about the game) will tell us this?

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      I cannot say a specific date right now. Just later this year. We are working really hard to finnish the game and we are not too far away. I’m sure we’ll be back here to tell more.

  • I am so much more excited for this than that awful-looking TV Superstars game for the Move. (The flat faces plastered onto flat circles really turned me off.) You game looks really fantastic.

    How much of the world will be destructible objects?

    Will the game be rendering in 1080p native?

    Who’s doing the music? Will the music assets be losslessly-compressed and/or 24-bit?

    Are you maxing out the SPUs in order to do 2-player skeletal tracking, video capture, physics, and rendering all at once? What programming innovations did you have to make?

    Lastly, is the skeletal tracking your proprietary library, or will other PS3 developers be able to leverage it?

    Thanks!

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hey Plaztiksyke,
      heavy duty questions there, some I haven’t had before. :)

      I can just say that there will be destructible elements as well as physical objects that you can kick around and on your enemies.

      It looks likely that the game will be 720p.

      We have a really awesome composer making pretty much all of the music. To get the download size down, the music will be compressed but so are MP3s and they still sound great. It is quite rare to use lossless for game music.

      We are doing the skeleton tracking and other vision processing on the SPUs as well as some of the more usual game engine services. I believe we still have some space on the SPUs.

      The main innovations are on the computer vision side as well as in integrating the freely moving and changing player into the physics engine and making the interactions fluid and natural. Being able to conveniently move inside the game world, exaggerating the players moves and getting the interaction immediate so no latency is noticed are also important things.

      The computer vision tech is our proprietary tech called FreeMotion. It remains to be seen if other devs will be able to use it.

  • Hi Teemu, I was wonderin if this game will have trophies?

  • I see this as the one game to rule all games for me and my two boys (5 and 8). Is it going to be PG? I don’t need it to be sterilized, but the ability to turn off the gore in Fat Princess made it an easier sell to the old lady. I hope this game will follow in that tradition.

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hi AlexDrelles,
      thanks for your engouraging comments!

      We are trying to get a low rating for the game. There wont be gore, the style is between real and cartoon. But obviously there is fighting. Although, with a humoristic/kung-fu legend angle rather than too serious. So we shall see how low they will give us.
      Kids have been great players and really nuts about the game. They have so much energy too that they can play for hours in one run jumping and kicking around.

  • This game looks like so much fun! I’ve been looking forward to another trailer ever since the teaser was shown. We’ll definitely be purchasing this one on day one!

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hi GooniesAndy,
      that’s awesome to hear! Thanks for the support! That makes it possible for us to do more games in the future.

  • Will there be a player vs. player component as well (like Street Fighter)? Controller-free for both players?

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      It seems inevitably dangerous to let more than one people on the same camera. Especially kids forget about the other and easily end up bumping to each other, even if you try to limit this with design. So it looks likely that we cannot support that.

  • @TwinDad

    Thanks!

  • It looks funny, ill be getting it

  • I love how a game utilizing a 2-3 year old camera on the PS3 looks more fun than anything Microsoft showed on the Kinect at E3.

  • i was just asking about this game a few days ago ;) if this goes for 9.99 u.s. , day 1 buy for me and i will get others to buy. i was wondering, i know you said there are videostream lag issues but what if you did an online multiplayer mode where you use the ds controllers w/o eye and you can battle people with your image. could you guys do this extra mode? of course you can, you guys are awesome , this should be childs play to masters like yous.please, tell me if you like the idea or did you guys already thought of it. wouldn’t doubt it

  • Teemu Mäki-Patola

    Hi Koma1tose,
    the idea has crossed our minds and actually been in our design Twiki. But for the first launch we need to focus and avoid the feature creep. But who knows what the future will bring. :)

  • I have to admit it, I was not interested in this one bit when I saw the first trailer… but this trailer looks great.

    I’m always worried about controller free gaming because on the Eye Toy a lot of the games were hard to control, but the game looks really fun. Brilliant and hilarious trailer guys.

    Now, please please please release this game before Kinect… and please please please get TV spots showing how this game doesn’t need a $150 camera to run.

    Finally (long post), is there any chance of you integrating Move (one or two controllers) into this? You could add all kinds of weapons and superimpose them into the game.

    Imagine the game with this nine-section whip:-
    youtube.com/watch?v=vcPr-AP1Vss

    A list of 100 kung fu weapons for your reference, Mr Teemu Mäki-Patola :D You could give us a Platinum Trophy if we unlock them all:-
    ezine.kungfumagazine.com/info/weapons.php

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Thanks for great links AnthonyTonyMagic! Wish I had the time and the budget for that trophy! :)

      Its likely that we won’t integrate the Move sticks with this first one, just the camera, but who knows what happens in the future. As I have said before, that would offer interesting possibilities for sure.

  • Can you imagine Kevin Butler playing this?

    BTW – Playing against people on regular controllers… genius!

  • sorry to bother you, but what do you mean by Twiki? i was wondering have you guys ever used 2 ps eyes at the same time and your result. what are the possibilities of using 2 ps eyes at the same time , would it give you more accuracy or some 3d?

    • Teemu Mäki-Patola

      Hey koma1tose,
      we have an internal company Twiki where for instance our design ideas go to.

      We haven’t used two PSEyes on a PlayStation. Did some 2 cam tests back when doing research at the university, though. With enough coding, you can extract depth with 2 cams. Not many PS3 owners have 2 PSEyes, though, but many will have one as it comes with the move.

  • i wonder why sony hasnt looked into the idea of using 2 ps eyes . im pretty sure my cell with the right software could do it. put each ps eye at different angle . 4 ps eyes ? i can get every angle of me , play a game that show alk angles

  • This game looks too absurdly awesome to pass up! I hope it does really well

  • Thanks so much for answering my questions!

    Just a note that if you aren’t going to use FLAC for your music assets, at least use 320kbit/sec AAC and not MP3. Then again, you could always do your sound mixing at 24-bit and have only a few 24-bit assets amongst the mostly 16-bit assets, like large explosions or boss battle music, where the extra oomph from the expanded dynamic range would make a big difference.

    Everyone I know who owns a PS3 has it hooked up to a nice sound system, and MP3-based assets always sound so muddy, boomy, and lispy. If you at least use AAC or FLAC, you should be able to avoid the obvious criticisms.

    I hope your composer is as good as Rag Doll Kung Fu’s — I love their theme music. Hopefully your trophies are a little bit easier than theirs, though ;)

    How many cores (SPU or otherwise) does the FreeMotion library require? Are there any specific enhancements you are looking to make before release to try and fully maximize the load on the SPUs?

  • Fantastic work, guys.
    One of the things that I always thought was a bummer about Sony’s setup with Move was that the PSEye could seemingly only track faces (and would have to guess body positioning based on head & hand locations), but lo and behold here comes Kung Fu Live to prove there’s more than meets the eye (0_<) ! This looks like it could be the must-have PSEye game, and if it's $9.99, count me in as another Day 1 buyer!

    Your proprietary tech FreeMotion is a treasure and could be a real asset to move titles in general! Are you thinking of ways to combine skeletal tracking with the Move controller for future projects? Also, are expansions possible with a downloadable PSN title like Kung Fu Live?

  • This looks fantastic.

    I can tell you guys put alot of hard work and passion in to this game.

    And it looks sooooooo fun.

    I mean this is the perfect party game. Everyones a little drunk trying to fight the other drunk people using the controllers!! =D really fantastic idea.

    Keep up the great work and i cant wait to see more and when it releases!

  • @25/Curtisio: You can’t really say this is copying that other company, without saying that other company is copying Sony’s original EyeToy(which had a game called ‘Kinetic’, oddly enough :).

  • gimme gimme gimme gimme XD
    HAHA!

  • This looks like awesome drunken fun lol, I’m in!!! 8)

  • Feature request :D

    Seeing as we’re not playing the game with controllers, any chance of some voice control being added to the game?

    It’d be great if we could add some custom voice commands… like “Ice to see you!” to ‘freeze’ the game.

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