An interactive experimental game that takes place near the border of a city undergoing a massacre. A stray dog follows scent trails of human fear and carries out its job to help human souls reincarnate.

The players explore the environment through the point of view of a stray dog. The game presents no story, context, or background information on where the massacre is taking place and why it is happening. Nothing will be resolved after the players finish the game. It creates an experience that invites contemplation on fear, deaths, and the collapse of a city. As a reflection of the on-going global situation, this game attempts to strip away politics, and allows players to reflect on human brutality and violence from the senses and perception of an animal.

This game adopts a point-cloud aesthetics and focuses on delivering an interactive cinematic experience with simple control. While using the mouse to look around, players control the dog to walk/sprint/hide/stop and the steering is automated. A bit similar to the control of a 2D platform game like Mario but the players can also look around in a 3D environment. For most of the gameplay, players are walking, hiding, and witnessing.

In an exhibition setting, this experimental game would be presented in a small dark immersive room with a HD projection. A keyboard and mouse would be put on a pedestal in the middle of the room, allowing one player to play at a time. At the same time, other people in the room can also watch the gameplay collectively as a cinematic experience.

Links: https://www.kwanalan.com/most-recent

Director, 3D artist, level design, programmer: Alan Kwan
R&D on point cloud graphics pipeline: Alan Kwan, Kachi Chan
Music: Jordi Jon Pardo
Advising on sound design and theremin experiment: Xiao Xiao
Advising on interactive design: Kenny Wong Chi-Chuen
Audio sample contributors on Freesound.org: Iamgiorgio, geoneo0, decembered, mikaelfernstrom, 15GPanskaBokstefflova_Nicola, Niedec, klankbeeld, Robinhood76, willybilly1984, elonen, Ephemeral_Rift
Special Thanks: Yang Jing, Mike Harris, Deniz Tortum, Lukas Steinman, Tamas Waliczky, Arthur Brussee, Keijiro Takahashi
Partially funded by Hong Kong Design Trust

Alan Kwan (HK) is an artist and technologist whose practice explores new possibilities of real-time 3D technologies that depart from the traditional video game paradigm and typical tech fantasies of AR/VR. His projects were presented at Ars Electronica Center in Austria, ZKM Centre in Germany, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, etc. and were featured in media including Discovery Channel and Popular Science. He was awarded the first prize of the MIT Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, etc. and holds a MSc in Art, Culture, and Technology from MIT.