Hot Brain Interview
Due out in the middle of June from Midway is Hot Brain, a brain training edutainment game that looks to be the PSP's answer to the popular Brain Age on Nintendo DS. We speak with producer Jerry Huber.
From Sudoku to Nintendo's Brain Age, gamers and non-gamers of all ages are partaking in exercises for the mind. Midway has decided to cut a slice of the pie for themselves in the forthcoming Hot Brain for the PSP. Being a huge fan of Nintendo's Brain Age, I was eager to learn how a brain training title on the PSP would work, so I spoke with Hot Brain's producer, Jerry Huber, to find out.
Shack: What prompted Midway to aim for a piece of the brain training market?
Jerry Huber: Actually, David Zucker (Midway CEO) was the one who came up with the initial concept for Hot Brain. He likes brain trainers and felt like this type of game would appeal to PSP gamers. The idea was to create a simple, pick-up-and-play type of game with a variety of puzzles, levels of challenge and comprehensive stat tracking.
Shack: Was Brain Age (NDS) an influence for the creation of Hot Brain?
Jerry Huber: Sure. The success of Brain Age was a pretty clear indicator that there's an interest in this type of game. When we started doing research, we found a ton of books and magazine articles on brain training. There are a lot of websites dedicated to the subject. I think people are intrigued by the idea of brain training and it lends itself well to a gaming experience.
We wanted to give Hot Brain some personality and a little humor. So we created a host character named Professor Ed Warmer. Professor Warmer is there to guide, tutor and encourage the player throughout the game. Fred Willard (Best in Show, Anchorman) provided all the VO for the character.
Shack: The touch screen made many of Brain Age's exercises easy. Writing solutions to arithmetic problems felt natural, as did writing the answers on a separate page than the problems. Why pass up the opportunity to use the dual screens and stylus benefits of the Nintendo DS?
Jerry Huber: I like the DS, so I wouldn't rule out the possibility of doing a version of Hot Brain for the DS sometime in the future. But we decided up front to focus on the Sony PSP. There aren't many games like this on the PSP, and we felt like we could do some fun things with the graphics, animation and audio [capabilities of] the PSP.
Shack: What kinds of activities are available?
Jerry Huber: We created 5 different challenge categories--Math, Logic, Memory, Concentration and Language. In each category, there are 3 different types of puzzles, 15 total. So there's a pretty good variety of challenges.
[Here are] a few examples. In Alphabet, you're given a list of words and you have to put them in alphabetic order. In Cruise Ship, there's a short animated sequence of people getting on and getting off of a ship. The goal of the puzzle is to keep a running total of the people on board the ship. In Sequencer, you're shown 3 sequential images and you have to pick the next image in the pattern. In Musical Memory, there's a series of sounds played. Your job is to repeat the sounds in the same order as they were played.
The puzzles are fairly easy, but they are timed, so you have to answer as quickly as possible. The more correct answers you get in the allotted time, the better your score.
Shack: How does Hot Brain monitor the user's progress so they know where they need to improve?
Jerry Huber: In a game like this, players love to see their scores; they want to see how much they've improved. So in Hot Brain we track stats [in] several different ways. In Hot Brain we use brain temperature to gauge how well the player is doing. The hotter your brain temperatureÂ… the better. At the end of each puzzle, there's a stat screen that displays your brain temperature (score) and gives you a ranking that ranges from Icy to On Fire.
We also display the number of questions you answered correctly and the average time per question. There's even a 3D model of the brain that's color coded to show how well the player did on the puzzle. The player can also display a graph that shows how he's done over time.
Shack: Let's say I get too good at the challenges. Are there multiple levels of difficulty, or ways to unlock harder challenges?
Jerry Huber: There are three levels of difficulty. You start off at the easy level. The medium and difficult levels are unlocked when you reach a certain score. There's also a set of achievement awards for of the each of the puzzles.
Shack: Does Hot Brain offer any multiplayer modes?
Jerry Huber: Hot Brain has two different multiplayer modes. Brain Race is a competitive event for 2 to 4 players. The goal is to be the first player that scores a "Red Hot". Think Tank is a cooperative event where 2 to 4 players work together.
Shack: Thanks for your time.
Hot Brain will be released for the PSP on June 18, 2007.
