Final Society by conrad123
Hello. My name is Spencer. I am your automated assistant and guide. My purpose is to monitor your actions and provide feedback for the rest of your existence. Consider me a friend who’s always looking out for what’s best for you.
I will start by teaching you what you need to lead a successful life in your new state of existence. Thousands of other trainees are receiving the exact same training right now, just like you. Together, we will all work together to form a perfect Final Society.
The basis of the Final Society is in equality. It’s important you understand that, when everything is the same, nothing can be unfair and nothing can be wrong.
There are three tasks in the Final Society. Lucky for you, they are all very easy. In the sorting area, you will place the colored cubes in their corresponding bins.
In the filling area, you will press the button when all the rings are filled.
And in the counting area, you will place the specified number of cubes in the transparent tray before pressing the button.
All you need to do is complete these tasks for the rest of your existence.
Remind yourself that everything that you will do is for the benefit of the Final Society. If you don’t do so, the punishment is all internal. You must live with the guilt that you are not benefitting the Final Society. If that happens, we’ll use special techniques to help guide you so that you can return to contributing to the Final Society one again.
Nothing is a mistake in the Final Society. There is no light in the Final Society because there is no darkness.
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Final Society: An Oculus Quest experience made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 48: Deeper and Deeper
Controls: Left joystick to move
Right joystick to snap rotate
Grip buttons to grab + climb
Thanks to HexaBody VR for player controller integration.
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This game has only been tested on Oculus Quest but the .apk should be platform-independent. If someone with another VR device (HTC Vive, etc.) could test this for me, that would be great! I'd definitely play their game in return!
Note that the download is a .apk so it must be installed onto the device and can't be played from the computer.
Gameplay video for those without headsets. If you're unable to play it in headset, just keep in mind that it's meant to be an embodied experience. If you do end up rating after watching, I'd really appreciate feedback (the more the better!!). (CONTAINS SPOILERS!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df8WU9BXceg
| Oculus Quest 1 + 2 | https://frog-rock-game-jams.itch.io/final-society |
| Link | https://frog-rock-game-jams.itch.io/final-society |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/final-society |
Ratings
| Overall | 227th | 3.737⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 319th | 3.526⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 225th | 3.632⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 581th | 3.368⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 558th | 3.237⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 225th | 3.553⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 101th | 3.579⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 178th | 3.711⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 16🗳️ | 17🗨️ |
Also I don't have a VR headset so I rated it based on the gameplay video.
Oculus Quest 2 here.
Some remark: game felt slightly too long with pretty same labyrinths at the beginning.
Cool and interesting entry!
First off: great work, you got a lot done in just 48h! The style, while super simple, is completely coherent. I can't judge how hard it is to get going with the Oculus dev kit, but yeah I like the completeness of the result. The music was well done, too.
Now the most outstanding part: the writing. Excellent work on the narrative, I also enjoyed the sort-of depressing humor :laughing: While I disagree with the philosophical message to a degree, I think it's awesome that there's a Ludum Dare game that even has one. You not only made 20 minutes of entertainment, you made a statement that communicates something personal.
@udo 1) Generally I'd prefer it if you only rated if you played in headset but your feedback was very thorough so I'll let it slide. :)
2) I somewhat disagree with the message (at the end) too haha. I was at hour 42 when I wrote it and was on brain-dead mode somewhat. I was looking for it to be thoughtful and deep, to really fit with the figurative take on the theme. It really just needed to make you think.
@conrad123 it did! My imagination went a bit tangential to the narrative, but a thought I had at the beginning of the game: If there was an AI assigned to watch over every single human forever, it might come up with "tasks" to keep us occupied. Clearly, the tasks in the game are everybody's definition of hell :laughing: But... it would be trivial for an AI to generate better tasks. A rewarding existence tailored to everyone's individual tastes. There is clearly a point where this type of final "society" stops being torture when the experience becomes more engaging - especially if the AI never tells you it's all a simulation. If the AI *then* told you what it's doing, would that remove your sense of meaning?
The player controller you used for this is fantastic, the body and controller physics really give a sense of immersion set by games Half-Life: Alyx. Suffice to say, the climbing felt fantastic especially having not read the controls before hand, it came as a nice surprise.
The pacing is a bit slow but worth it for the final sequence I'd say. Having some true puzzle elements instead of just not doing what you're told or finding the exit to the mazes give the game some momentum.
There was a real sense of style in the presentation despite the bare-bones graphics. Though, you can get a bit lost because of the lack of lighting/perspective. By the end of the game I grew quite an affinity with Spencer and the way he says "the Final Society".
I did start having headaches after awhile despite being pretty used to VR, perhaps adding a vignette effect when moving would help for comfort?
Thanks for making this, it was a lot of fun to play!