D4 creator Hidetaka ‘Swerty65’ Suehiro has discussed the creation of his Xbox One debut in a new interview, and has dropped some interesting nuggets regarding gameplay, plot and the potential for Kinect-based facial recognition.

It follows the confirmation of two new indie games heading to Xbox One under the ‘ID@Xbox’ banner. Hit the link to see what they are.

Now; in an interview with OXM, Suehiro discussed D4’s Kinect control system., which sees detective David Young fighting with a suspect on a passenger jet and reacting to threats in the world. The whole game can be played using Kinect alone, or you can switch to a controller if Microsoft’s sensor makes you “embarrassed,” he says.

During Kinect action scenes, a Synchro Action pop-up will appear, showing you which stance to take in order to complete the move. The example given was a lunge that helps David deflect an incoming baseball.

David’s Synchro Action bar will fill if you perform these actions well, or if you pick dialogue choices closest to how the detective would act in a given situation. You can respond to prompts using standard controls or through voice cues using Kinect’s microphone.

The game uses Kinect at its core, but Suehiro wants to go deeper, if he can. He told OXM, “The original Kinect was enough for me to come up with the concept for D4, but for using the player’s whole body in various poses, the new Kinect is indispensable.

“For one thing, it can now track all your fingers, and for another it lets you play sitting down. Voice control makes the interaction more responsive, and you can get closer to the screen and even play in a dark room. The new Kinect can even read your facial expression, so I’m currently finding a way to implement the player’s empathy.”

It’s an interesting aim, given Xbox One’s ability to track expressions. We saw the tech running at gamescom and incredibly, it seemed to work.

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