For gamers that are fans of horror titles virtual reality (VR) can provide some of the best shock scares of any entertainment medium. There’s a few to choose from depending on the platform you own and now a new project has come to light. Being developed by The Drunk Pixel is Side Effect, a horror videogame that focuses on player choice moulding and changing the gameplay along the way.
In Side Effect players take the role of a 32 year old husband who lives with his wife Lisa and daughter Jane. But things don’t go so well when you get kidnapped, knocked out and taken to a dark unknown location where your only company are rusty medical instruments.
The Drunk Pixel has released the first prototype gameplay footage, starting off in a seemingly normal apartment. As the player wanders around looking for his family various objects can be interacted with for further info as they try to understand what’s going on. It’s not long before an evil entity appears to bring the horror experience to life.
One of the main features the developer has revealed is a system in which reactions to the game will be tracked and stored to a database to better tailor the experience to the player. So depending on how players explore, solve puzzles and react to the nightmares that pop up, Side Effect will alter the gameplay accordingly possibly making the videogame even more fraught.
Currently Side Effect is being developed for PC and Mac. The Drunk Pixel will be launching both a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign and a Steam Greenlight campaign to raise awareness and funds for the project. Juan José Castellano, one of the developers on Side Effect has also told VRFocus that if the funding goals are met a VR version will be made as well, although which head-mounted displays (HMDs) would be supported has yet to be revealed.
VRFocus will bring you further coverage of Side Effect as details are released.
