Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
We Were One Second Away From Blowing Up Everyone At PAX
The Oculus Rift is poised to change the way we approach gaming, with new experiences being developed every day for the head-mounted display. One of the most interesting uses I've experienced was a little game in the tabletop area of the Indie Minibooth called Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
The premise is ripped right from countless movies featuring a ticking time bomb and a short window to defuse it. Keep Talking simulates a bomb defusal scenario that has one player handling the explosive via the Rift, while others flip through a manual to provide disarming instructions.
I was joined by associated editor Kyle Hilliard, who was responsible for guiding me through the process of saving everyone. There are three different difficulty levels that use progressively more of the manual.
These are the notes Kyle had to read aloud from.
We stuck to "first time" mode, which gave us three different things to do before time ran out. I started by describing my bomb to Kyle, so he could understand what I was seeing, including interactive elements and notable features like two batteries, a serial number, and a nametag that said "Bob."
Our first step was to cut one of six wires. I gave him the rundown and we quickly snipped the correct one.
The next step was to push four buttons in the correct order. These had difficult-to-describe symbols on them, and I had to refine how I was communicating what they looked like.
These are some of the notes we took while communicating with one another.
It took a while to find the solution, but we were able to get it right and move on to the final step. We were confounded by the giant button in the middle of the bomb.
Kyle read me part of the manual, and neither of us quite understood how we needed to push the button and for how long to succeed. I earned a strike as we tried to understand the button, but knew that I wasn't going to dodge that bullet again.
With 1.17 seconds left to go, I latched onto something Kyle said and went for broke. The bomb shut off and the crowd standing by, watching things from my perspective on a television screen, applauded our narrow success.
Keep Talking was originally a Global Game Jam creation earlier this year, but it signifies the potential of virtual reality. The game would be a great party experience, but with some slight modification would also be a wonderful team-building and communication improving tool.
Of course, that's just my perspective. The beauty of Keep Talking is that there's an entirely different experience for those with the manual.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
