Anthroboom
Project Description
Pitch: You’re out to get donuts as demanded by the boss and it’s business as usual until you realize an evil hex has been put on you that sets the day off into an entirely different direction…
Platform: Google VR for iOS // desktop
Setting: A town square populated with human NPCs and various destroyable buildings.
Magic/Essential Game Mechanic: An evil spell is cast upon the player that makes them blow up periodically, causing destruction for nearby NPCs and buildings.
Player interaction: The player has the ability to teleport across the map using gaze and pressing the button. On desktop, the player moves using WASD inputs.
Player choice: As permitted by teleportation, the player will be able to choose where they will explode. Will they try to find somewhere where they can’t hurt anyone? Or will they embrace their newfound powers and go berserk?
Player Experience // VR Experience
The player is subjected into inhabiting a character of established and unalterable violent force.
The player senses a lack of control, as their movements are slow and they have no control over the far reaching explosions.
A computer version of the same game was made using WASD movement rather than teleportation, however the game was more conceptually successful in the iOS Cardboard version. In VR, the experience was focused on the psychological embodying of a violent character, whereas in the desktop version there was a sense of lacking in the “game-ness,” as there was no point keeping, scoring, or clear objective.
Considerations
Visual
- Used more “realistic” than cartoonish models to create a visceral experience more closely related to common FPS games
Sound
- What should indicate the countdown between explosions? What should the explosion be set off by?
- A timer was too terrorist bomb-like as it felt like the evil of the character was too intentional rather than forced upon, like it would be for a hex. A visual indicator could still be added that helps allude to the sense of magic/demonic possession.
Humor - Video game language/culture
- Ragdoll physics, ridiculous voice overs from friends
Influences // “Exactly what the fuck did I grow up with?”
Late 90’s - 2000’s computer FPS games - pulled aesthetic and game design inspirations from these games as they are games I played and was surrounded by as a young child.
Ethics of video games! - violence is normalized in countless ways - when do we forgive it and when do we take offense? Why?
- Who is usually the enemy?
- What kind of choice does the player have? Are the choices made in game ethical? Can they be disconnected from our ethical choices “outside of gaming”?