815 The Touch-Bar As A Secondary Display

As with any introduction to a new input method for gaming, it’s immediately interesting and thought-provoking what opportunities Apple’s touch-bar can create. I’ve easily thought of 4 ideas already. I want to explore some ideas for using it as a secondary display for already existing games.

• The touch-bar could be used as a health bar in a traditional RPG or Diablo style game. This would be an interesting experiment, it could be bright and noticeable, but out of the way of the game’s actual play area.
• The touch-bar could contain visual shortcuts to menus or other things that are typically obscured by just using a single letter key to activate
• It could be the compass that many modern RPGs contain
• Shortcuts to commonly used settings
• Visual buttons that replace skills, abilities, etc that would otherwise be on the game’s screen

Obviously this is not a revolutionary idea, Nintendo has been doing it with Wii U and even before that with GBA/GC link. But, it’s interesting to think of how it can be used to enhance games.

[ Today I Was Playing: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time ]

#game-mechanic-system, #touch-bar-game