Cows vs Aliens Trailer
The Story (& My Role)
You are an alien vacationing on Earth and have discovered the cutest creature you’ve ever laid eyes on... cows! Collect as many cows as you can for as long as you can to maintain your happiness meter, but don’t fall for the decoys! FBI agents suspicious of extraterrestrial activity are disguised as cows and are out to get you AND your new beloveds!
Leave the planet with as many new cow friends as you can collect to spread the happiness of cows to your home planet!
Leave the planet with as many new cow friends as you can collect to spread the happiness of cows to your home planet!
I worked as the Lead Producer, Audio Designer, and Experience Designer. I also assisted our Lead Fabricator in designing and assembling our chair controllers.
As the Lead Producer, I took on a lot of the task delegation, problem-solving, and communication responsibilities. This included scheduling and organizing frequent meetings, setting and communicating deadlines across all departments, leading and encouraging the team through production sprints, and happily completing any miscellaneous tasks that may not fall into any particular department.
For example, I created all of our public marketing materials, including the trailer and walkthrough videos, and wrote the applications for public showcase opportunities extending beyond class requirements. Additionally, I worked on building our brand outside of the game environment by creating unique social media content to support our weekly updates. This included short videos and Reels as well as a custom effect made in Meta Spark.
Team Moo-Niverse Entertainment!
(L to R: Me, Larenz Harrington, Eriane Austria, Christine Chen, Emily Mercado)
Full game walkthrough, which I directed and edited. Shoutout to Larenz and Eriane for their hard work and awesome walkthrough!
As the team's Audio Designer, I also sourced and/or composed all of the audio heard in the game. I wanted to use my knowledge of music theory to create catchy melodies that could be repeated many times and still be engaging to listeners.
I created 6 full tracks, ranging from 90 to 120 seconds in duration, as well as 1 short interlude. They all utilize pentatonic scales and are inspired by retro, 8-bit arcade music. I also sourced all of the sound effects from Freesounds. Then, I used Audacity to ensure that the volume of each track was consistent.
Initial iterations for the physical installation
As our Experience Designer, I wanted to incorporate principles of Themed Entertainment Design into our game both physically and digitally. This resulted in two additional experiences that are designed to extend the guest experience beyond our game, one is a physical installation and the other is a virtual AR experience. This was intentionally done to drive organic brand awareness to new players across multiple markets and invite them to engage with our game and its story.
Before in-person players get to use our custom-built chair controllers, they are beamed up into the spaceship just like the cows. It attracts viewers by serving as an easily identifiable location signifier and immerses players by subtly surrounding their field of view and creating a discrete space to play. It brings the world of the game into the viewer's physical space, creating a spectacle that grabs attention.
The image above shows some initial iterations of the physical iteration and the image to the right shows the finished installation. The major differences between the final and penultimate iterations were several coats of silver paint, some glitter glue, and much less time to set up. If I had more time, I would have wanted to create a more built-in structure for the "beam" so it surrounded the entire table.
Finished installation with the monitor and controllers
Demo of AR Effect
For a digital experience, I decided it would be fun to create an AR Effect in Meta Spark using the assets from our game. I recently learned how to use the software and wanted to apply that skill to this project. We were using a shared Instagram to publicly document our work all semester, so I chose it as the platform to integrate it with.
I combined multiple features to create a holistically unique and engaging effect that was consistent with our game's narrative. I used background detection and paired it with our environmental assets to allow the user to place themselves in the game's world. I also used face tracking to incorporate both static and particle elements to make the cows appear to float up to the spaceship, which is anchored to the subject's forehead. It is already attracting new audiences to our game!
Scan this to try it for yourself!
Behind the scenes of how it was made
As mentioned earlier, I also assisted our Lead Fabricator, Larenz Harrington, in designing and constructing our chairs. I helped create the CAD files which were then cut out with the CNC machine. Additionally, I was present for many of the design meetings with our fabrication mentor, J.E. Johnson, and participated in many construction meetings with Larenz.
