If I had unlimited time and resources to make a video game, it would be available on the VR and it would revolutionize the VR system because I’d want to make it Ready Player One fancy. I feel like we are already on track in the gaming industry toward the kind of VR tech we see in movies like how we have the headset and sticks for the hands, but in the future, I’m positive we’ll evolve toward full-body suits and Omni-directional treadmills to run on, alongside something in the headset that taps into your brain or something.
What makes a game more real to a player is its ability to evoke emotion from them, so that’d be the main goal. The game I would develop would be about the Cortland 1919 fire in which the player becomes one of the teachers or students. In order to exit the building as the fire spreads, you have to complete a series of puzzles and challenges, like saving students or entering the archives and determining what should be saved. With the advanced futuristic VR-element, the player would hear the sounds of the fire, feel the heat of the flames, and even get tired after running through the imaginary building on a treadmill. Depending on what the player does or what path she takes, the outcome of the game is different — the future of Cortland is affected by what she chooses.
For example, did the player choose not to save archives pertaining to any laws? Boom, no more laws in Cortland. When you exit the building, the town is in chaos as crime is abundant. Who did you save from the fire in the stairwell, the math teacher or the bully, Evan? If you picked the bully, unfortunately, Evan is revealed to have started the fire in the first place and arson continues in Cortland. I don’t know, some kind of cause and effect thing.
-Sarah DeLena