Eye of Judgement uses several pieces of special equipment. The PS3 will be utilising an upgraded version of the EyeToy camera with a higher resolution than currently available (the specifications of which have not yet been finalised). In addition to this the game will require a special stand to hold the camera and point it onto a playing mat with grid squares marked out. Finally you’ll need a set of at least 30 trading cards to actually play the game with.
Battle mode in action.
The game mechanics are simple. There is a 3x3 grid of rectangles which you must place your cards upon. Following traditional card battles rules the gameplay is turned based. There are two types of cards; “creature cards” and “spell cards”. With a creature card the grid plot that you place it upon will be occupied by the creature it represents. The attack and guard directions will depend on the direction card is pointing. The spell cards allow you to attack other player’s creatures, or control a piece of land. Once you control 5 out of the 9 fields you win the game.
The camera is used to capture the image of your hand placing the cards on the grid. The cards are encoded with what Sony calls “Cyber Code” technology which allows the PS3 to recognise what card is being played and to make the relevant changes on-screen. The characters that you summon with the cards are superimposed from the image of the cards onto the playing field. When two characters are fighting, the screen switches to “battle mode” and only the opposing characters are shown on screen performing their moves.
The game also features a mode where you can hold cards in front of the camera to view their profiles. This includes data about their health points, attack points, and special-abilities. Each card also specialises in one of the 5 elemental types; fire, earth, wood, water or mech. The elements will play a key role in determining attack strengths against enemies. When in the profile mode, if you “poke” the characters on-screen with your finger they will react and fire off one of their attack movements.
Card abuse.
What’s most surprising is that as we found out in our interview the game has been in development for 3 years, with 2 of those spent just working on the rules to govern the card battles. Traditional card games which are deep in strategy often require complex calculations to work out scores and who wins each battle. By integrating the game with the PS3, these calculations can be performed by the console – making the playing experience much simpler. The idea is that the game will be able to appeal to a much a more mainstream audience than your typical trading card based game.
Eye of Judgement will only support 1-2 players - either against the console, or an opponent with their own set of cards. At this stage the game does not have any online capability, but it might be implemented in time for launch.
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