Project Altered Reality
It’s always hard to flesh out an idea, to ink an outline, to smooth the edges. It’s even harder to explain it in words that other people can comprehend, but that is how we get a point across, so I’m gonna make it happen.
I guess I’ll start by explaining what this project is at it’s core. Essentially this is a game about motion and it’s an android phone. The way you control your view of the world inside the game, is by adjusting your physical view outside the game. You hold your phone and pan it left, then your character looks left, you do the same but to the right and your character looks right. If you need to shoot at something, aim and tap to shoot at it. If you need to run, look in a direction and run. It is a simple concept, it’s simple to understand, simple to use, simple to master, hard to implement. Or maybe it’s easy to implement but hard to make fun. Or maybe both.
The base of the game is built around the ability to move around a virtual world, augmented by movements in the real world and basically that’s the idea. But where do we go from there. Essentially what we have is glorified StreetView, so what makes it compelling? Unfortunately I can’t answer that, it’s kind of like asking a baker why red velvet cake tastes good. I like red velvet cake because it has great texture, isn’t overtly sweet like vanilla or strawberry shortcake and isn’t too rich like double chocolate or pound cake. But my reasons might differ from Maria’s or George’s preferences. Thus it might be improbable for the chef to provide a universally compelling answer to that question. Then again it’s probably impossible for anybody to answer that question with universal appeal. Thus to avoid the philosophical entanglement, I’ll just continue to describe the game like I was.
So what is the actual game? The game is a shooter. You move around the map killing the unlucky souls who cross your path until the enemy team is wiped out. You have abilities and power-ups to assist you in that endeavor. You kill enemies to build up your mana, then expend that mana activating abilities. You collect powerups running around the map. You can sort of envision it as Team Fortress meets Dota. Or maybe Quake 3 on android.
That’s about all I can accurately say. I like the baker, can describe what goes into the cake, or the game, but only time will tell if it tastes good, or plays well? Now I’m confusing myself, I better stop.