O.V.U.M.
Alternative Controller Stealth horror game
Content Warning : mention of animal abuse and body horror
Pitch
What looked like another day being a cleaning staff at the Happy Happy Farm™ slaughterhouse turns a life changing for Sam when he enters the lab and sees the Egg.
Suddenly taken by a brisk surge of bravery, he's going to try and save this little bit of innocence from the industrial nightmare he's been working for.
Responsibilities
Game design
Early on, I defined some key mechanics along with the team and drew a benchmark. I then worked with the programmer to get the stealth feature and a simulated alternative controller implemented so I could start iterating on blockouts with Unity Probuilder.
I also started to look for narrative material in actual documentation from L214 (an association advocating for animal rights and antispecism) and gathered testimonies from someone who actually worked in a slaughterhouse.This lead to us creating a little ARG (Alternate Reality Game), creating a twitter page for our meat-producing evil corporation and using actual L214 documentation as collectibles in the game
Responsibilities
Narrative design
As the topic was sensitive, I started to look for narrative material in actual documentation from L214 (an association advocating for animal rights and antispecism) and gathered testimonies from someone who actually worked in a slaughterhouse.This lead to us creating a little ARG (Alternate Reality Game), creating a twitter page for our meat-producing evil corporation and using actual L214 documentation as collectibles in the game
Specific challenge
Alternative Controller
The litteral key mechanic of the game lies in its alternative
controller : The Egg. The player could hold it it one hand while playing and sometimes had to care for it with both hands, keeping them from using the controls to run away or hide.
The Ovipary from Vivipary Utilitary Mutation (O.V.U.M.) project protype, stolen by the main character. It contains a fully formed animal capable of feeling stressed out and comforted.
As it stresses out from being out of its incubator, it will start screaming (both in game and IRL), putting the player in danger of being spotted. To calm it down, they will have to gently hold it in their arm and caress it. The controller will detect the caresses through a microphone placed under the (synthetic) skin.
