DAEMON: Augmented Reality Cyberpunk Game and Gallery Show

[Problem]

Main Website: [url]http://daem.onl/[/url]
Kickstarter: [url]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielpomidor/daemon-augmented-reality-game[/url]
Submitting Art: [URL="http://daem.onl/submit.php"]http://daem.onl/submit.php[/URL]

[video=youtube;wBWIF44khK8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBWIF44khK8[/video]
[I]Filmed using a combination of the AR app alpha (non stereo to make it easier for viewers) and stationary camera positions. The AR you see in this trailer is the real deal, no rotoscoping or visfx to make it happen.[/I]

[vid]http://i.imgur.com/5V3EmNR.webm[/vid]
[I]AR Footage from the beta test we ran 3/15/16. We'll upload the actual footage from the test farther down the line when we've had time to edit it.[/I]

[t]http://i.imgur.com/6aHuxfY.jpg[/t]
[I]Still from the trailer. Yes, I did the set dressing myself. We're aiming to make the entire LARP have a similar aesthetic.[/I]
[B]
TLDR:[/B]

I've been developing an Augmented Reality LARP (cyberpunk themed) for the past year, with a team of 9 filmakers/game designers/sound artists/glitch artists/concept artists. The game splits players (SCAD Students and Alumni) up into small squads of 5-10 and gives them missions to complete around Savannah, GA using their wits, their athleticism, and an augmented reality app we've been developing for use with Google Cardboad (which we're also providing). The main influences on the game, aesthetic, and story have been Blade Runner, Vaporwave, glitch art, Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex: HR, and District 9, amongst many many others. We're nearly done and now we're canvasing for funds as we've been developing pro-bono and out of pocket for the entirety of it. We're looking for $1250 to run the game and gallery show in Savannah, GA, since we want to keep it all free to attend and play. Yes, we're also running a new media/glitch art gallery show at the end of the game on April 17th. The game itself runs from April 15th - April 17th. We'll be recording and documenting the entire thing, so even those that can't or won't play or attend can still experience it and hopefully get something out of supporting us on Kickstarter.
[B][U]
Actual information about DAEMON:[/U][/B]

[B]Some brief background about me and stuff:[/B]

I'm a game developer/programmer/designer/team lead/artist dude going to school in Savannah, GA at Savannah College of Art and Design working on my BFA in Game Dev.

DAEMON is a LARP by nature, hosted in Savannah, GA. This is due to the SCAD environment, where LARPs are actually pretty damn popular. SCAD Humans VS Zombies is the biggest, usually holding 300+ players per game with a pretty massive nerf subculture. This video covers it pretty well:

[video=youtube;9KCWJ6W0Vs8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KCWJ6W0Vs8[/video]

I led HvZ back in 2015 (and worked on it less in 2014), learned a lot, built a good team that could probably do something similar again, worked as a webmaster on the site for the game, and then quit once my time as game lead was up (leads work on the game for a year at a time).

Then I started working DAEMON, and brought back a lot of the people I worked with on SCAD HvZ 2015 and people I'd met in the surrounding SCAD community interested in the kind of weird shit I'm interested in.

[B]The Event[/B]

DAEMON is basically the culmination of everything I've learned as a game developer over the past 4 years. It's a game that tasks players with fighting one another with nerf guns while unraveling a cyberpunk mystery. And yes, since we're working on an augmented reality app that works in stereo-view with google cardboard, they'll be running around solving augmented reality puzzles like digging up passwords and completing hacking minigames (think Alien Isolation and Dystopia's hacking minigames). They'll also be tasked with solving ciphers, finding and playing old VHS tapes and CDs, and basically completing an ARG alongside the game.

DAEMON will then end with a gallery show, where we're showing off the work of our team's glitch artist, Jon Springs ([url]http://videotreasures.online/[/url]), as well as myself, local talent, and anyone from here (Facepunch) and anywhere else that want to show off their glitch art. The show is open to the public, and we want people to submit their artwork. [URL="http://daem.onl/submit.php"]http://daem.onl/submit.php[/URL]

This is some of Jon's work, for reference to what we're looking at:

[video=youtube;xvYmj8SzPS4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvYmj8SzPS4[/video]

[video=youtube;2-JuH5DXldE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-JuH5DXldE[/video]

While I'll be posting an actual page with more details, anyone who does New Media/Glitch/Motion art is welcome to submit to us at [email][e-mail][/email]. The theme we're working with is [B][I][U]"Art that discusses humanity's relationship with technology"[/U][/I][/B]. It is curated, so it's not guaranteed that your work will get in (so no, we're not taking MSPaint schlock, but we will take weirdo glitch shit etc etc), and attendance of the show is free, so we're not paying you either since we're doing it all for free, but if this is something you're interested in and you still aren't deterred by all these hilarious caveats, by all means submit. [URL="http://daem.onl/submit.php"]http://daem.onl/submit.php[/URL] This is a photo of the gallery space:
[t]https://sulfurstudios.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/dsc6370_final.jpg[/t]

We'll be projecting work onto the walls, as well as showing it on flatscreen and CRT TVs set up around the room. If we get enough we'll rotate through pieces, slideshow style, or combine it into a reel.

[B]The Design[/B]

DAEMON has been under development for over a year. It's a combination of several nerf-combat centric missions, and augmented reality game mechanics. Players will split into teams of 5-10, and receive mission emails that give them the option of working for 1 of 3 factions. Depending on which they pick will put them, naturally, in conflict with teams that pick other factions to work for. They can swap factions between missions, which will hopefully lead to plenty of backstabbing and intrigue. Teams have several lives going into missions that they divy up amongst themselves, and completing missions grants them more, and also doubles as the game's main source of currency (scarcity being created and giving the currency value since it's also their lives). This currency they can spend on weapon upgrades and player abilities, or access to information and tips to completing the game.

The game is limited to being played by students and alumni of Savannah College of Art and Design, mainly due to the rules and safety regulations of hosting the game on campus, and also just making sure on my end I can actually regulate anything that happens between players, since this is real life. The gallery is open to anyone, however, and we're also going to be recording the entire game documentary-style, both the actual gameplay (using GoPros and recording Google Cardboard input) and behind-the-scenes of running the LARP (traditional camera setups).

Oh, we're developing the game using a combination of Unity, Vuforia, and the Google Cardboard SDK. I'm the programmer, and we're using C#.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2S2MAE5.jpg[/IMG]
[I]
Concept art by our team's art lead, Rey Cuevas.[/I]

[B]The Kickstarter[/B]

[url]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielpomidor/daemon-augmented-reality-game[/url]

It's running right now, until April 13th, before we run the game. Basically we've been doing this all for free, and in lieu of charging people to play or attend the gallery show, we're running a Kickstarter to reach out for funds in hopes that this crazy-ass, cutting-edge, weirdo game has interest to people outside of ourselves and the SCAD community. We need money to set dress areas in the style of our teaser trailer so that players are immersed, to reserve the gallery space, to acquire weird stuff like VHS tapes and CRT televisions, pick up enough Google Cardboards to give away to teams (1 per team), and make all this craziness actually work. We know we're not getting the money until after the event actually happens: We're basically paying ourselves back using the Kickstarter funds, due to the limited time period and the fact we're college students and not billionaires.

[B]This Topic[/B]
Ask me anything. I know this shit is pretty weird, and I know I don't post on FP anywhere near often enough for anyone here to really know me. So really, ask away and I'll answer what I can. I'm a college student shilling for funds and glitch art on a video game message board for a Kickstarter. Can't really get more desperate, I suppose.

[Gufu]

You lucky bastards, my ex-campus can hardly get 70 people per HvZ game. Also, I'm rather sure that as a whole, having an actual Nerf-LARP with ongoing story is an achievement all of it's own. To be honest, I'd love to run one of my own, as I have even produced [URL="https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1511005&highlight="]a combat system for it[/URL]. I haven't thought of possible AR integration, but I'd very interested in seeing the progress of this.

[Problem]

[QUOTE=gufu;50001805]You lucky bastards, my ex-campus can hardly get 70 people per HvZ game. Also, I'm rather sure that as a whole, having an actual Nerf-LARP with ongoing story is an achievement all of it's own. To be honest, I'd love to run one of my own, as I have even produced [URL="https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1511005&highlight="]a combat system for it[/URL]. I haven't thought of possible AR integration, but I'd very interested in seeing the progress of this.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. I think when HvZ started at SCAD it was in the lower numbers, but the past 3 or 4 years it's been a behemoth at 300ish players. It drops off over the 5 days we run it, but there's nothing quite like watching a tiny batallion of nerf nerds walking around campus fighting off zombies and solving puzzles.

As far as the AR integration it's been pretty tricky thinking of how to integrate it into missions and the game in general. We have a pretty good feeling about what we have now, but the honest truth of it is that running the game is going to be a genuine test of it since it basically has never been done before. We've been testing it repeatedly over the past year but the game will be the genuine stress test. I'm really, really, really excited about the results.

Your writeup looks pretty interesting. Mainly, I think it could benefit from some isometric style diagrams that explain the game visually to people. Also reading over the rules, some kind of regulating body like moderators that makes sure the game runs smoothly. I did a long-ass writeup of HvZ 2015 if you feel like that might help you develop yours more: [URL="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51517688/HvZ2015ProcessBook.pdf"]Process Book[/URL]

[Gufu]

By the way sorry to continue derailing the thread, but does your campus use HVZ Source to run the game? I actually developed a web platform for my school to replace it and was hoping to release it publicly in the future.

[Problem]

[QUOTE=gufu;50001920]By the way sorry to continue derailing the thread, but does your campus use HVZ Source to run the game? I actually developed a web platform for my school to replace it and was hoping to release it publicly in the future.[/QUOTE]

It's OK. No, previously we used a custom-built engine, then we moved to using Knoop VS Zombies last year when our previous webmaster hopped ship and I had to take over. I handed it off to a new guy this year, but from what I know they are too.

[Gufu]

[QUOTE=Problem;50001931]It's OK. No, previously we used a custom-built engine, then we moved to using Knoop VS Zombies last year when our previous webmaster hopped ship and I had to take over. I handed it off to a new guy this year, but from what I know they are too.[/QUOTE]

Huh, didn't know there already existed an alternative. Oh, and thanks for that PDF, it will of great use for the local club, and diagrams are a great idea as well.

[Problem]

[QUOTE=gufu;50002010]Huh, didn't know there already existed an alternative. Oh, and thanks for that PDF, it will of great use for the local club, and diagrams are a great idea as well.[/QUOTE]

Yeah there is, it's a lot of work to implement it since it uses PHP and mySQL but it runs smoothly enough when set up. To me, it beats paying for a site or being locked into an unmodifiable template. Since SCAD HvZ had unique rules and maps etc it was helpful to be able to modify it even if it was a bit of a pain in the ass. And no problem.

[ScriptKitt3h]

I've heard about HvZ before- I thought it was pretty cool back then, and this looks awesome.

I'm curious- do you guys plan on potentially expanding the game to other colleges/locales?
(Provided, of course, that everything goes well.)
SCAD's great from what I hear, but as someone who's attending a different college (College of Charleston in SC), I'd love to see this expand to other schools in the region.

[Pardalis]

You should get in touch with [URL="http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/"]Prosthetic Knowledge[/URL]. They have a decent tumblr following and this is exactly the kind of thing they'd be happy to share.

I love it. It looks great, and the aesthetic is perfect. Are you planning on releasing the game's ruleset and apps to allow anyone to play it? Hit me up if you ever need a Spanish translator.

[Problem]

[QUOTE=ScriptKitt3h;50004580]I've heard about HvZ before- I thought it was pretty cool back then, and this looks awesome.

I'm curious- do you guys plan on potentially expanding the game to other colleges/locales?
(Provided, of course, that everything goes well.)
SCAD's great from what I hear, but as someone who's attending a different college (College of Charleston in SC), I'd love to see this expand to other schools in the region.[/QUOTE]

Since this is my last year at SCAD, I'm not going to be staying in the area to push for it to continue being hosted there after this, since I won't be going to school anymore and need to find a job and won't be able to use their facilities, etc etc. However...

[QUOTE=latin_geek;50004980]You should get in touch with [URL="http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/"]Prosthetic Knowledge[/URL]. They have a decent tumblr following and this is exactly the kind of thing they'd be happy to share.

I love it. It looks great, and the aesthetic is perfect. Are you planning on releasing the game's ruleset and apps to allow anyone to play it? Hit me up if you ever need a Spanish translator.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the referral, I'll reach out to them. Currently I'm looking for people to reach out to, so this is good to hear.

As far as the ruleset and the apps go, I'd like to release it as best as I am able. Since the AR is being constructed for specific scenarios we're creating during the game, I don't think it's modular enough to be used elsewhere yet unless somebody ran the exact same missions, but if DAEMON is successful I'd like to start figuring out how to make it modular enough to be run anywhere. Ideally, also at any time a la Ingress, but that's still something we'd need to figure out after way more development time in the future. Ultimately, DAEMON needs to happen in it's current form first before we can start moving forward with either of those ideas, since we need to see what's actually viable.

And I'll keep you in mind for Spanish translation, for sure. I'd love to keep developing DAEMON after we run this initial game, but again, we need to actually run this version first.

And thanks for the compliments on the aesthetic! Our team's glitch artist is responsible for the dated, fuzzy VHS look, while I've been doing production design with the concept artists we have on the team. The goal of the Kickstarter is partially allowing us to make play areas have some of that same vibe as the trailer does.

[Problem]

We've begun accepting art submissions here [URL="http://daem.onl/submit.php"]http://daem.onl/submit.php[/URL]

EDIT: Huh, didn't automerge like I was expecting. In any case, adding this to the OP.