The Eye of Judgment
A card game that uses the PlayStation Eye camera to read physical cards.
The Eye of Judgment, a digital collectible card game for the PlayStation 3, was created by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was the first game to work with the PlayStation Eye camera, often sold together as a bundle across multiple regions. Though initially planned for the PS3’s November 2006 launch, it finally arrived in Japan on October 25, 2007, as Set 1.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Japan Studio
- Publisher
- Sony Computer Entertainment
- Genre
- Collectible card game
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Platforms
- PlayStation 3
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The game uses a 9 Fields table mat with a 3x3 rectangular grid and special trading cards encoded with CyberCode matrix code. Players take turns placing cards on the mat, and the PlayStation Eye camera, mounted on a special stand, captures the cards and player gestures. The first player to occupy five spaces wins. On each turn, a player may move a card, changing its position or orientation. Cards are divided into creature cards and spell cards. Placing a creature card face-up summons the creature, which appears perched on the field. Creatures have offensive and defensive levels that vary by orientation, and are more vulnerable to attacks from the side or behind. During an attack, the view switches to a battle mode showing the two creatures fighting. Spell cards can attack other creatures or claim or affect a space. The nine fields and most cards are categorized by one of five elements: fire, water, earth, wood, and Biolith. Fire opposes water, and earth opposes wood. A creature played on a matching element field gains +2 life; on an opposite element field it loses 2 life, and if it has 2 or fewer life points it dies immediately. Biolith cards are neutral. Each field has a second element partially revealed on its edge, which becomes active when certain cards flip the field. In the default configuration, the center field is always Biolith, and the other elements follow a set pattern. The field can be set to random or other configurations in casual games.
Features
A profile mode lets players hold cards in front of the camera to view health points, attack points, special abilities, and effects; poking the creature makes it perform an attack action. A simplistic Rock, Paper, Scissors-style mode is included for younger players. Set 1 comes with a playing mat, a PlayStation Eye stand, a starter pack of 30 summoning cards and 4 function cards, and an eight-card booster pack. All starter packs contain the same cards, while booster packs contain random summoning cards. Wizards of the Coast sells booster packs and pre-constructed theme decks separately. Each set has approximately 100 unique card types: 110 in Set 1, 100 in Set 2, and 101 in Set 3 (only 100 of Set 3's cards are playable in game; card 311 is a promotional card only). Two-player competitive matches can be played online. To prevent cheating, players' summoning decks are registered and saved; in online matches the random draw is handled virtually using the registered deck data, and cards are played normally. Duplicate cards must be presented simultaneously when registering. Marketing director Christy Newton stated that measures were incorporated in the recognition technology and card printing to prevent color photocopies from being usable, though success has been reported using standard photocopies and hand-drawn copies.
Development
Producers Kazuhito Miyaki and Yusuke Watanabe stated at E3 2006 that the game had been in development for three years: the previous year focused on graphics development, and the two years before that on developing gameplay mechanics on paper. Technological tests were conducted at the start, and a main area of development was getting the game to properly recognize cards on the play mat. Regarding the CyberCode matrix code, Miyaki said in a 2007 interview that working with the technology was challenging, noting it started at Sony Computer Science Laboratories with a more complicated barcode system that used two supercomputers and high vision cameras and was not practical for home game machines. An official teaser site in August 2006 indicated the name contained the subtitle Conquerors of 9 Fields; the game later received the subtitle Biolith Rebellion in Japan. Online support was discontinued on September 30, 2010. A spin-off for the PlayStation Portable, The Eye of Judgement: Legends, was released in 2010 and does not use the PSP's camera attachment, but is otherwise identical in gameplay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who developed The Eye of Judgment?
The Eye of Judgment was developed by Japan Studio.
Is The Eye of Judgment single-player or multiplayer?
The Eye of Judgment offers single-player and multiplayer play.
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