Feb
7th
2014
The Possible New Life of an Old School Project · 2:46am Feb 7th, 2014
So, again, for those of you who don't know, I'm a computer programmer by trade, focusing specifically on games. In the last year of my master degree, I worked on a project called Nevermind: a psychological-horror game that also makes use of a heart rate monitor. The relatively short prototype we made went on to win a bunch of awards at competitions like Indiecade and Sidgraph. It's also been featured in numerous articles from websites like IGN, Game Informer, PC Gamer, and Rock, Paper, Shogun.
Well, now, the lead designer on the project, Erin Reynolds, has put Nevermind up on Kickstarter. So, while not pony related, I can't help but plug this project which was a major focus for the last year of my masters. Check it out!
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Pen Stroke · 889 views
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Are you still involved with the project?
Cool!
Boy...
That looks ambitious...
~Skeeter The Lurker
I want this to be released.
No, this NEEDS to be released.
Man. My pessimism is really acting up right now.....
Oh, this'll be scary alright. I have fear of butterflies. BTW, you made the kickstarter?
Not 'til the fanmods start, at least.
I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh when she said biofeedback gameplay is the future of gaming while it was showing the chest device. I'm interested in this particular game's application of such a device, but it'd take some hellacious marketing power to make a gimmicky peripheral like that into 'the future'. Nintendo hasn't been doing too hot lately, but they have some pretty powerful marketing (though you wouldn't know it looking at their Wii U launch), and they couldn't get third party developers to adopt the Wii Fit board to save their lives, and that heart beat monitor peripheral they were touting at some point never even released. This game is going to be sold through Steam, so is it safe to assume that it's not going to include such a device? How much do those cost separate? A game that requires me to go out and buy something else to play it is less likely to win a portion of my pocket book.
To reiterate, this game does look extremely interesting, and the look and feel of the assumed gameplay on show in the Kickstarter's videos is creepy in a way I wish more horror games could pull off. I'm just not a fan of having to go out and buy a... $30-ish device to play this one game and never use again. Maybe biofeedback gameplay could catch on if it were incorporated into a more impressively feature-rich and exciting system with much more widespread support, like the Oculus Rift, or potentially the Avegant Glyph.
Whoa whoa whoa... Hold the ponies... You write and do game design in your spare time? Wow... That's pretty flipping awesome news to me. My respect meter has just gone up considerably in your case. I hope your game does very well, but like 1805149 pointed out... kind of bluntly... The idea of the game requiring a piece of hardware almost no one else uses is a bit out there. I've never been too much of a horror game fan myself, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate them or what they can do. Some people enjoy the experience as much as I enjoy having a good laugh. It's why I love watching comedy movies and reading stories of the same genre. I'm sure serious fans of the horror demographic will go out of their way to try the game even with a stipulation like the heart monitor, but I have to ask what makes you think it will become so popular you can justify basing a core game mechanic around it. Other then that, I support the idea. It sounds incredibly intense. Although, I doubt I could play the game. Either I would get scared to the point that the game becomes unbeatable, or I start laughing to the point the game presents no challenge at all. I'm weird like that.
I am going to donate when I get paid next.
1804834
As mentioned in the blog, the game's original designer, Erin Reynolds, has started the kickstarter. I'm just plugging it.
1805253
Not game design and not in my spare time. Game Programming is what I do for my 9 to 5 while writing is my hobby on the side. And I wasn't the designer on the original project. I was the producer who also did a bit of the coding. Erin Reynolds is the designer.
very interesting
1806326 Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding. Your job is still cool though...
And here I am, stuck in a company that develops software for banking segment. Where did I take the wrong turn?
1805149
1805253
I'm not sure if this is a new update, or if it's been there the whole time, but the heart monitor isn't required. It will likely provide a better experience, but they are designing around people who don't have heart monitors.
Oh cool! Small world, I suppose. I worked with Erin while we were still both at Zynga. She's down in LA again, last I heard. Super-talented and super-driven, I'm jealous you got to work directly with her (we were on different teams at The Big Z).
This game is going places, you all should definitely consider backing it!
Hmmm... not my type of thing... but looks fascinating...
Trailer and stuff on it?