Remember Sara Is Missing? A game that is set entirely within a missing young Asian woman's phone by Kaigan Games; where you play as a stranger who just picked up a phone off the street and you know the owner needs it back. The gameplay involves you scouring through the phone to look for clues and figuring out the identity and location of the owner. Your objective is as simple as returning the phone, but you will eventually get absorbed into a mysterious encounter where your decisions could mean life or death.
With the game being picked up by renowned YouTubers such as Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, REACT Channel and Kubz Scouts while garnering almost 2 million downloads across platforms (Android, iOS, PC/Steam, etc), Sara Is Missing is definitely a success story. Even though it was supposed to be only a demo, according to game producer Shahrizar Roslan.
"We were surprised with the reception... We learned a lot from the release and we feel that we can do so much more to this type of (immersive) game", said Jeremy Ooi, game designer of Sara Is Missing. The team spent about 6 months to research and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the game, in other words, what worked and what didn't.
With that, we at IGN Southeast Asia are proud to introduce to you - SIMULACRA, the spiritual successor to the award-winning Sara Is Missing (take note of the SIMilarity), which followed a similar setup and premise; but it will be better, longer and mind-blowing, as promised by #TeamKaigan.
SIMULA- WHAT?
SIMULACRA takes you back to the world of digital horror in similar fashion to Sara Is Missing. Blending real live footage, a realistic simulated mobile phone interface, 2 interactive social media platforms and other interactive features. SIMULACRA take you through the story of a simple girl - Anna, caught between unknown forces. With over 3 hours of game content, the game pushes the boundary of creative storytelling within just a smartphone screen.
It is a known strategy for horror movies and/or games to extract fear in gritty details of reality, such as a semi-closed creaking door, a dark long corridor with flickering lights, the fear of height or losing your phone. And in this case, finding a lost phone that somehow peaks your interest to find out more about the owner by looking through her messages, social media, contacts, emails and so on.
We had the chance to try out the early build of the game, and it has has genuine tension and does an excellent job of enticing the player to poke around someone else's life and dig through where you shouldn't be, all in the name of curiosity and righteousness.
MORE THAN JUST A MISSING GIRL
Creepy much?
Yes. It's true that there's something creepy and morally challenged about the feeling of sniffing through someone's life to the extent that it's pretty much voyeuristic.
That's precisely the intention of the team, to examine how useful our smartphone can be to our lives and how it can be equally useful to potential perpetrators.
"It's a reflection, exaggerated danger of social media and dating apps that we want to highlight", Jeremy explained the underlining message of the game.
sim·u·la·crum
/simyəˈlākrəm,ˌsimyəˈlakrəm/
noun
plural noun: simulacra
/simyəˈlākrəm,ˌsimyəˈlakrəm/
noun
plural noun: simulacra
An imperfect image or representation of someone or something.
"Another sub-theme that we are exploring (in accordance to the title - SIMULACRA, which means imperfect copy of something), is to take a look at our digital presence and identity, basically it's merely a reflection of our true identity that we want the world to see", said Shahrizar.
The simulated smartphone experience in SIMULACRA is quipped with 2 social media platforms: 1) Sparks - a location-based dating app and 2) Jabbr - social networking service where users post and interact with messages, restricted to 140 characters.
The experience of interacting with the artificial characters embedded in these simulated social media platforms was fun and incredibly surreal. If you're into details, you can even spend time looking at the profiles and linguistic patterns of all the created characters, they were detailed enough to rival real-life social media accounts!
THERE'RE STRINGS ATTACHED TO EVERYTHING
Another interesting new feature that Kaigan brought to the table for SIMULACRA is the functionality of inserting "attachment" when interacting with the game characters via multiple messaging mediums.
"Just like in WhatsApp or other chatting apps, if a character asks for something, you can actually send them a photo or a video", said Jeremy. Lead developer Shahazmi Roslan also expanded the attachments are limited to within the game, in other words, it is not an augmented reality feature where you can use your phone's camera or webcam to snap and send.
Shahrizar also elaborated that, after discussing with several game developers, they have decided to not blur the line between reality and the game too much. "As players may get really freak out or confused. Initially in Sara Is Missing, we wanted to blur the line, but then, we do received emails from players said that 'Hey, the app crashed, and it made me reset my phone'. Nope, it didn't".
As much as the team wanted SIMULACRA to be immersive, they have to think about the bigger picture and ensure that the game will somehow not be a safety hazard (for phones at the very least).
SO, WHEN CAN I PLAY THE GAME?
SIMULACRA is set to release for desktop and mobile devices. It will hit the App Store and Google Play by late September and should be available on Steam by October.
Unlike the predecessor, SIMULACRA won't be a free-to-play game, and it has a price tag of $4.99 USD. The trial and/or early demo of the game may be open for download by mid-late September.
SIMULACRA is essentially an immersive horror/thriller game, it is definitely worth a try if you're into horror or something a little edgy. From a game design perspective, the game offers an intriguing look at how a linear narrative game can be executed.
Article Courtesy: FREDDY TAN
Videos Courtesy: www.youtube.com
Photos Courtesy: sea.ign.com
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