Tearbears

Posted 2013-11-28 15:57:34 by Alix

As Joe’s blog mentions, some of the Opposable Games team recently went to Game Hack. This involved 200 or so people stuffed into a large room with one purpose – to make a working game that could be demonstrated to the rest of the room at the end of 24 hours.Oh, and there were prizes.

When the theme “Childhood” was revealed our two teams set out to make games that we thought best represented this word. So as one team immediately gravitated to the cute – we went down the not-so-cute-route.

After some discussion, we decided that we’d like to make a game for the Ocullus Rift. This was partly due to when Ben and I had exhibited at Venturefest, a non-profit event that brings people together to network, discuss and exhibit technical innovations. We set up a booth with the Oculus and the amount of people that wandered up to us to give it a go was surprising. From students to smart suited business men, everyone was willing to look silly for a moment while they got to wander through a virtual jungle or took a stroll along the bottom of the ocean. There’s something great about being able to look directly behind you in a game and actually see the rest of the world and not your bedroom. And everyone seemed impressed by the tech and excited to see more.

So after discussing childhood and sifting through some of the more obvious ideas, we explored children’s rhymes. One that stood out was “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic”, and what would happen if the bears weren’t as friendly as the song suggests. So naturally, we made a game about a bear that leaves his owners house to attend the Teddy Bear’s Picnic. When the bear doesn’t return, his friend sets out to find his bear and discovers him mysteriously torn apart. The disembodied head of his fluffy friend tells the child that the other bears are responsible and that they’re coming back very soon. As the evil bears show up it’s your job to fend them off from your conveniently close treehouse with a suspiciously inexhaustible supply of ammo.

Killing the evil bears gains you fluff (which you use to repair your bear), letting the bears gather harms the treehouse. Leaving it even longer, (or being terrible at the game) ends with the bears over-running the treehouse.

The highlight of the 24 hours for me was when I had to speed learn texturing to create the scary bears. This was something I’d never done before, but having the time pressure made me really focus and, by the end, I felt like I’d accomplished something. Not just for this game but for the future, when other projects might require it.

When the environment, coding and evil bears were all finished we had a complete game that actually worked. Not only that but it’s actually fun to play. With the player in the centre being surrounded by bears, it makes you more inclined to protect your treehouse – and more likely to jump when an inexplicably large bear appears behind you.

Tear Bears has been submitted to the Oculus Rift demo store, I’ll post a link when it’s been approved. I’m looking forward to watching people step into a game that I’ve helped create…and in only 24 hours.

-Alix (artist)