Super Size Hero is an immersive virtual reality game for the HTC Vive which aims to put the player into the role of an overweight superhero trying to save the day. Integral part of the experience is a specially crafted, superhero themed “fatsuit” which will track the belly movement of the player, allowing for immersive gameplay interactions and pseudo-haptical feedback. The core gameplay loop is highscore-based and requires the player to collect as many points as possible each round. Points can be accumulated by performing gameplay actions to the given scenario, for example using the players belly in order to bounce fleeing prisoners back into the prison or to interrupt bank robbers. At the start of every level the player can choose one of three suits - each grants special abilities and a unique playstyle which adds replay value to the experience. To take the idea of cross-media even further, the game is accompanied by a series of three trailers which serve as advertisement for the game and challenge the player to try to do better than the protagonist of each clip.The experience is not intended for home users, but rather as a unique, static experience which can only be experienced in its completion at certain events such as Gamescom or Siggraph Asia and is more of a full “event” instead of just a simple game.
The overall playtime per person including suiting the player up is around 5 minutes per round. On the technical side the experience is set up mostly with available consumer hardware. The game is running on Unreal Engine 4 in combination with HTC Vive and the default controllers. Additionally, the belly movement is tracked through a default HTC Vive tracker. At the core of the experience is our custom made fatsuit which mimics the virtual belly in terms of size, shape and movement and therefore provides an enhanced feeling of immersion and unique gameplay challenges. Simple tasks such as picking up bags of money suddenly becomes a challenge, while the increased