Nintendo DS and Touch Input

While I'm on the subject of touch input, I want to talk about Nintendo's DS.

I got my DS back in December '04 and have been fascinated by the many different application gestures they recognize, particularly in WarioWare: Touched! They use the mic, swirly spiral gestures, tapping, strokes, back-and-forth and more. What a wonderful idea for Touch training on a Tablet! Unfortunately, I didn't really push the idea and so I don't think that our new tutorials are anything like the minigames in WarioWare: Touched! They're more of the same "picture changes when you successfully perform task" type of thing.

I wonder what we could do to make the Pen/Touch training more enjoyable for users, to draw them into actually doing the training. Would making a very simple game a la Minesweeper or Solitaire, that specifically used the different input modalities be worthwhile?

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 21, 2005
  Yeah, you just need something that they can play with. Get them used to touching, and they'll figure out the rest. It's like getting someone used to a Mouse, really.
  
  Try Stringy Things (link above.. or below, or wherever the URL shows up!)
• Anonymous
  September 22, 2005
  Whenever I get a new handheld (Palm, iPaq), I would load up Zork or some other Infocom game to get used to the handwriting, so I think it'd be a great idea. Just make sure there's a traditional demo for those stuffy types. <grin>