Newsletter #1, AWAY!
So how much news was really IN that newsletter? I’m posting the entire thing here, I’m not sure how many people check their email versus check the website, so I’m going to try this as well and see what works better.
A big thank you to everyone who has been following along and offering their thoughts, you guys are great!
What’s Going On at Encephalon
Issue #1
Talk about exciting!
It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, but we’re finally here — Encephalon Games Newsletter issue #1! I’m going to be honest, I’m beat! After this goes out I think I’m going to sit down for the rest of the day and watch horror movies. Tomorrow I’ll be back again to start getting the playable pre-alpha demo for Couch Invaders ready in time for the next newsletter! What is an alpha test? And what the heck is a Couch Invader? Read more about it below to find out!
The Next-Mind BCI Headset
Next-Mind is a company in Paris, France, founded in 2017. Their headset is currently available as a development kit while people try to figure out the best way to make use of this technology. This interface in particular was designed to work using the occipital lobe of the brain, shown on the left-hand side of the picture below.
(it’s pronounced ox-SI-puh-tal)
The occipital lobe, as the visual processing center of the brain, is pretty important for you to be able to see. Special receptors in the eyes amazingly convert light into an electrochemical signal, which travels along the optic nerve all the way to this part at the back of your upper brain (or cerebrum). Next-Mind’s headset rests on top of this area and is able to see the spike in activity in the visual center of the brain as it interprets the flashing tags in the scene. This is especially impressive considering that this is usually the thickest part of the skull at 9-12mm for females and 11-15mm in males! Check out the video below to see how well it actually works (note that I have pretty short hair, so it may not work as well for people with fancy, poofy coifs).
But wait, there’s more!
I have slowly but surely working towards Encephalon’s very first game, Couch Invaders. “How far would you go to protect your home, family, and furniture? When aliens invade the sleepy town of South Poke, Carl Mullet answers that question with a BANG.”
It started as an idea similar to Space Invaders, but has since morphed into … well, this weirdness. As the game opens, one of the walls in the living room gets destroyed by invading UFOs, exposing your living room to the attackers coming up through the backyard. Zombies come pouring in with two goals: eating brains, and wrecking the house (and possibly trying to sell you an extended car warranty)! Using weapons you’d find in a typical American home (you know … guns, bows, illegal fireworks, probably a katana), you and your ammo-hoarding wife Becky-Sue must try to protect each other, what’s left of the house –and if possible the TV — from zombies and the alien technology that is bringing them back to life.
I’m aiming for a pre-Alpha (pronounced “buggy and incomplete”) demo that I want to make available to everyone by the time the next newsletter rolls around on June 12th. I have a list of items I want to get done long-term (as in more than 7 days away), but I’d like to get some specific things finished in time for the playable demo. A weapons rack, a shooting gallery, exploding barrels, and a hamburger-doll-firing bait gun to lure zombies to specific areas (I call them Burger Boys!) I’m still rigging the animations for Becky Sue, so I don’t think the wife is going to be quite ready yet (unless I make her creepy broken animations part of the game).
Rigging the skeleton for Carl’s wife and I wasn’t paying attention to the fingers. If Couch Invaders doesn’t take off, maybe I’ll make another game called Arthritis Simulator?
I had to break the video into two this week as I didn’t want anyone to have to sit through 15 minutes of me blabbing if you’re not interested in both parts.
Here’s video #1 on Couch Invaders
Here’s video #2 on the Next-Mind BCI interface
That’s all I have for this week! Next week is going to be a big deal, I should have a PLAYABLE ALPHA DEMO for Couch Invaders on the Oculus Quest 2. It’s much easier to sideload games using SideQuest (www.sidequestvr.com), if you’re unsure how to set that up, shoot me an email!
Also, it seems like more and more people are buying the Quest 2. There are a LOT of great games out there, I would be happy to show you some of the fun (and not so fun) ones that I’ve found so far. If nothing else, maybe it saves you a few bucks. Is that something you guys would be interested in?
Thank you guys for everything, I am so appreciative that you took the time to subscribe and read this. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I look forward to sharing more with you. For now, I’m going to sit on the couch for a long time and watch some scary movies.
Hopefully without any pesky zombies or aliens knocking down the door 🙂
-Mario