In an ongoing series we call "Shouting into the Void" - another update on the game!
Tomorrow. Tomorrow the game that is the first of our games to release on Steam -happens at you. What will it mean? What will it do? How will this change your life and relationships and the existential dread you feel?
The answer is that it will not repair any of those deep crushing holes you feel inside. But. If you buy it. For a few calm and peaceful moments... You will put on the headset and be somewhere else.
A dreamlike place, in a far away, purposefully-non-specifical _Asia_ where you have a brief and nice puzzle to solve. And is it one of the two puzzles you hate? The one where it's so complicated that only the game makers understand the non-linear logic they used to derive the clues? NO!
Is it the other kind where it's like "The orb that ought be on Newton's head?" And you shout APPLE. APPPLE. A.P.P.L.E. as the experience grinds on slowly luxuriating in its cleverness. Basking in the expected kudos from the pretend smart people it panders to?
(Ok that was really harsh towards the DaVinci Code. It was a pretty good book despite that.)
Anyway. It's neither of those things. It's a simple scavenger hunt. Pretty simple. A couple weird twists. That even if you don't get them... It all happens in one room. Just keep picking up stuff and looking and you will find the McGuffin. (Seems weird for it to be Scottish, in an Asian context. Oh well)
But here's the important thing. This game is not the point! The point is all the other stuff we have planned. Delicious and gooey theme park mystery foolishness. Large world mythology and lore. Deep dive crazy-ass story and code and ARG jibber jabber.
And for codes. Think more like Gravity Falls or Davinci Code than... like those weird monuments outside of the CIA that nobody can decode. We want people to find the story. We want you do dig. But we want you to not feel maddened by transcribing hex code on a Saturday night. Though someone did bring up Esperanto recently. Which. I the writer emerging from this "we" toned article cannot deal with. Ok. Back to "we"
WE are excited for you to escape the real world for a minute in our happy little vibe. Taste test the stuff we are trying to build. Get a little sample of the way the mysteries work. (Don't look too deep yet. They're there, but you can't unwind all the yarn yet) And hopefully you have a nice time. We hope this is the sort of experience you can share with the kids. Launch first when a friend wants to try on a headset. Go back to once in a while just to sit in a nice place.
And we fully expect you to tell us the stuff we got wrong. Did the controllers work? Did you know that VR has an insane number of completely non-standard controller specs from various manufacturers at various times? We did... But we did not know that it was this damn maddening.
So if you launch it on InstaSuperEyes 360® By SocialCorp and it does not work as expected. Please. By all means. Shout at us. Demand refunds or apologies. Force us to help you move next time you change apartments. Whatever. We're up for it.
We're having a good time. And we want you to come to the party. Tomorrow. (I the writer emerging from the "we" again. I want so badly to say something about "putting it on your face" - but _we_ are a family friendly group. It would have been funny though.)