CODE RAT - The Game

Introduction

"CODE RAT - The Game" is a student VR game created during the winter semester of 2022/23 as part of the AniFilm/AniPlay course at Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. The task is to create an IP that consists of a short film and a game. All of that produced within a tight 3-month timeframe.

The AniFilm/AniPlay course puts together new constellation of creative teams based on their individual backgrounds, interests as well as their role within a team and tasks them to come up with an original IP which is developed further throughout the following month's preproduction period.

We wanted to develop an asymmetric game that two people could either play against one another or together towards a common goal. When we decided to go with the rat and human interaction, it was very important to us that the rat would not be seen as vermin and neither be shot at, nor captured.

This led us to the hide and seek mechanism. At an earlier stage, the lab worker had to take a clear picture of the rat. After the first tests, we found several challenges that would have required way more time than we had at hand and so we changed it to spotting the rat with the flashlight instead.

In this early testing stage, the rat was controlled with a "stick", so that two people could play free-roam simultaneously. Due to the difference in dimension and speed in the avatars, we then had to make the rat a stationary player, so that it could move with the speed and agility of a rat throughout the lab.

First Mock Up to test the game idea.

Creating routes and hiding places was an especially challenging step.

Implementation

As a hardware we used two Oculus Quest 2 that were linked together. The synchronizing of both VR glasses took a lot of effort, as the virtual starting positions would start in different places and had to be synced back to match with the game's surfaces.

Figuring out a proper workflow was another big challenge, as none of us had ever done anything similar before.

The game is set up in an wide area with a free-roam area of roughly 6x6m for the player Human. The player Rat plays stationary  on a chair. When we presented this game to the audience, we had projectors put up which were linked up with Chrome View devices, so spectators could watch the life POV feed of the two players.

Team Credits

IP & Idea Philipp Dörrer, Avina Graefe, Benjamin Gätzschmann, Franz Rügamer, Matthias Strasser, Sofia Strunden, Simon Weck & Levin Wunder

Directing Sofia Strunden

Technical Director Simon Weck

Producer Franz Rügamer, Avina Graefe

Modelling Character Matthias Strasser, Levin Wunder, Sofia Strunden, Simon Weck

3D Support Benjamin Gätzschmann, Levin Wunder

Music Peter Albrecht

Voice Acting Jessica Nathalie Ballhaus

Sound Design Philipp Dörrer

Sound Recording Franz Rügamer