A group of Carleton interactive multimedia and design (IMD) students are gearing up to start beta testing their new game, Another End, in March.
The team is made up of IMD students Marco Brito, Ryan Bottriell, Bethany Dunfield, Matthew Fournier, and Zara Tooth.
Another End puts players in a world where the environment and story are procedurally generated and different for each person, Bottriell said. This will allow players to experience things not specifically programmed into the game.
“It’s the cutting-edge new thing to happen. Most of the games out there have pre-recorded content,” said Ali Arya, co-ordinator of the IMD program. “The problem is if the user wants to do something new, there’s no content for it.”
While the story is somewhat pre-planned, the smaller actions and tasks the player is given depend on what the player does, he said.
“We have four characters, called glyphs, in the world and they are all working against each other,” Bottriell said. “What you do will change the influence level of those characters around the world. Based on their influence levels, the story is generated.”
A major feature of Another End is the option to play it using Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset with motion controls.
“Oculus adds a lot,” Bottriell said. “The level of immersion helps you feel more in the game rather than just in a computer window checking your email.”
Arya said there are challenges with using virtual reality, including people suffering nausea and headaches, but he said the technology does help people feel more immersed.
The game is designed to be played in the Google Chrome web browser on both PC and Mac.
“We’re not at the stage where we want people to look at it necessarily but we would like to start doing play tests on March 15,” Bottriell said.
Another End is played in the first-person, where the player sees the world through the eyes of their character, and is comparable to a first-person shooter or an adventure game.
The four characters the player can decide to help in the game are the Destroyer, the Architect, the Illusionist, and the Protector.
“If you decide to help the Destroyer a lot and you go around destroying things his influence goes up and you unlock more powers related to that glyph,” Bottriell said.
Another End will be publicly showcased at the IMD senior project fair on April 10. Bottriell said the team is looking forward to the feedback people give them on the game.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the whole team but I know we would like for it to go further,” he said. “I hope people find it interesting and want to see more of it.”
