Swing Jazz - KLProduction
ChromaCORP
4 Player, 15 min Themed entertainment
Players are hired at a seemingly dream role at ChromaCorp, but they soon discover that the colors are questionably harvested. Players are expected to go about their mundane desk work—extracting color using their computers in order to meet their daily quotas.
After a turning point, players are later tasked throughout the game to sneak away from their cubicles, and work together in order to subvert the company, all the meanwhile avoiding getting caught by the every watchful eye of ChromaCorp.
My role in ChromaCorp
Due to the size of the team, I worked in many areas in ChromaCORP. I mainly function as a game designer who combines crazy ideas and controllers.
I work as a game designer, system designer, and lead programmer, and I do QA for playtests.
Other than directly working on the game, I also shoot videos and edit them for in-game cutscenes, events, and marking.
Making ChromaCORP is very different than making a traditional video game, and I am glad I am part of it.
Backend of ChromaCorp
Something never been made before
On the paper, we have ChromaCorp running four players locally; each player has their own station and webcam. Other than that, there is a main display and four playable alt controllers.
5 Display
4 Player Controller
4 Alt Controller
4 Camera
Nothing was easy in the development of ChromaCorp. Our goal was to create something fun for the player and also easy for us to run.
Unlike video games, which players can open and run independently, an escape room or themed entertainment game always requires something to be done in the background.
For ChromaCorp, I designed the game to run independently. We just need to press down one key to begin the game, and the rest will play without more control from our end. Thanks to all the UX designers and other game designers, the game can be played in a minute.
They are just webcam inside
The ChromaCorp keyboard
Use tech for experinces, not just because they are cool
We don’t want to use some technology because it sounds cool, like motion capture cameras. A big part of ChromaCorp is trying to destroy the company under surveillance, and people were wondering how to ensure players know they are under watch.
We designed a game for Xbox Kinect before and understand we can use it for a real surveillance system. But we decide not to.
I connect a webcam to the game engine, and the in-game player behavior will affect the camera footage. There is nothing like motion tracking in that webcam, but the player believes something is watching them.
The same goes for the player controller.
We gave each player a real keyboard and mouse for the office feelingfirst, but we decided to make our own controller.
Due to how Windows was designed, connecting multiple mice and keyboards to it is troublesome, and we think players won’t feel any difference if we get that working.
To create a more unique experience for players, we made our mini keyboard with only four buttons and one old-school joystick. We designed all the Interactive around these few buttons and the joystick, but this feels more fun and unique.
Less but Better
In the final version of ChromaCorp, players play only the color extraction game on their workstations, but in the very early design, three mini-games were available.
Two of the games were removed after playtesting, even though they were already built. They do provide more info and more different tasks for the player, but at the same time, they downplay the major story point in ChromaCorp.
We spent all the time making the color extraction game a real game, and some players say they can just play it on their own.
For the main game loop, we had more wild gameplay, a version that allows multiple players to destroy the company at once, a version with a dynamic surveillance camera that will always focus on one player, a version that players need to keep passing a physical disc between each other…
But all those ideas didn’t make it to the end. We are aiming for gameplay that is under 30 minutes and a 15-minute version for the convention. None of those versions are easy to understand, and it is hard to say how players will enjoy them.
So we came up with our final game loop, which has a built-in tutorial, increases in difficulty but is clean, and covers more players.
one of the unused mini game
Old playtest
Gameplay
Problem Solving
Built-in tutorial
Design the surveillance feel without real surveillance
Leave space for players to think how they want to help each other, give player agency
Dynamic timing system: the game will always end at the right time
Multiple endings
Tech
Use four different webcams for Unity to understand the differences
Use four different USB ports to register all four webcams
Use all keyboard binding for player controllers and alt controllers
Use pluggable to run five additional screen works on a laptop
Working in ChromaCorp Team:
Music: Library - Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist)