Rovatar is a mixed reality game where the player’s way to experience the world is heavily distorted by having most of his senses replaced by a physical robot’s, which he then must use to find back to his own human body. The experience starts with the player being disoriented in a real-world maze. As the game progresses and the robot passes different sections of the maze, it becomes evident, that he is some kind of test subject – and not the first one either. The path is littered with the remains of bots, cryptic hints and psychedelic optical illusions.
The viewpoint and audio of the robot is streamed onto the screen of a HTC Vive HMD, which enhances the identification with the robot-avatar since the perception is far more isolated. During my game design studies, this project was special, since it dealt with the design, construction and programming of a physical robot and maze, rather than a digital game. While the switch to analog brought new opportunities and challenges, likewise some also went away. Contrary to our expectations, we had zero cases of motion sickness. Fortunately our team managed to overcome all unique challenges, resulting in an overwhelmingly positive feedback on exhibition day.
At some point during the playthrough, players escape the inside of the maze for the first time and thereby get the chance to see themselves from their own third-person view. This digital out-of body experience was my most beloved feature of the project, causing a clash of identities. Players were unanimously thrilled with our mind-bendingly weird experience!