Biweekly Entertainment Post-Mortem

Biweekly Entertainment is proud to present Old Men With Kites, a whimsical arcade game following an old man in his quest to rekindle an old flame. We were able to implement most features we planned, and our game is not only functional, but fun!

Since the Oculus Go is so constrained, we were able to focus all of our time on making the kite mechanic feel intuitive and rewarding. It especially took many iterations to mitigate motion sickness, since acceleration in VR is difficult to reconcile with sitting still in reality. We settled on a kite that has somewhat tight mechanics, but is slow enough to react that avoiding obstacles requires foresight and strategy, especially as the player speeds up and obstacles spawn more frequently.

We made record time with fleshing out mechanics and asset creation, and were able to put three distinct environments in the game. You start in a retirement community, dodging old women crossing the road and cars backing out of driveways. After a couple miles, you transition to the city, a bustling street with crazy drivers, billboards, and sewage geysers. Finally, you reach the forest/swamp, where you’re dodging rocks, trees, storks, and alligators.

Each time you crash, you’ll spawn in a store, playing 70s pop music and littered with candy you collected on your run. Here, you can purchase upgrades, like invulnerability time, hit points, boost speed, and kite speed. Then, hit the door to roll out the kite again.