Boston Indie Game Spotlight – OBEY

<p>Tonight&&num;8217&semi;s tedious manual labor has left you exhausted&comma; but under the watchful eye of the oppressor&comma; rest is not an option&period; Long ago you saw past the illusion of success through hard work honesty and you&&num;8217&semi;re now aware that feeding the machine lines its pockets much faster than it lines your own&period; But attempting to subvert the ruler is grounds for execution&comma; not to mention practically impossible while under constant surveillance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But what&&num;8217&semi;s this&quest; One of your fellow peons has successfully removed their shackles and stepped out of line&comma; unnoticed&excl; Should you join him to start a revolution&quest; Should you distract the leader and allow him to subvert the regime&quest; If he gains power&comma; will he help you&comma; or be even more tyrannical&quest; Or perhaps the current overlord will pay handsomely for your loyalty if you snitch on the traitor&period; Your pause during this moment of indecision has been noticed and suddenly you’re in the spotlight&comma; guns trained on your head&period; What do you do&quest; Oh&comma; and by the way&&num;8230&semi;&period; you&&num;8217&semi;re an adorable bunny&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233850&sol;OBEY-2014-09-13-00-01-00-14&period;png"><img class&equals;" size-large wp-image-82877 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233850&sol;OBEY-2014-09-13-00-01-00-14-1024x640&period;png" alt&equals;"OBEY 2014-09-13 00-01-00-14" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"388" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Under the surface of <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;lfagames&period;com&sol;">Lo-Fi Apocalypse<&sol;a>’s upcoming&comma; adorably <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;Nineteen&lowbar;Eighty-Four">Orwellian<&sol;a> project&comma; <em>OBEY<&sol;em>&comma; lies a compelling&comma; ruthless social experiment&period; The object of <em>OBEY<&sol;em> is to simply be the first player to earn a set amount of cash&period; Every few seconds&comma; each player earns a few cents&comma; depending on their position in the game&period; If they&&num;8217&semi;ve managed to enter the giant&comma; fully-armed&comma; all-seeing robot&comma; they earn money the quickest&period; If they submit to the robot and agree to wear a collar &lpar;which indicates their position on the map to the robot&rpar; they earn more than their fellow bunnies who refuse to wear collars&period; But without a collar&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s easier to sneak into and subvert the robot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233827&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-16-41-45-32&period;png"><img class&equals;" size-large wp-image-82878 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233827&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-16-41-45-32-1024x564&period;png" alt&equals;"OBEY 2014-10-10 16-41-45-32" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"341" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Obviously&comma; everyone wants to be the robot&comma; if not for the chance to wield some awesome weaponry&comma; then for the opportunity to boss around other players via the continuously open voice chat&period; You see&comma; another way to earn cash for yourself is to &&num;8220&semi;feed&&num;8221&semi; the robot by placing items into a box which then also adds to the robot’s wealth&comma; or his robot arsenal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As the robot&comma; you must not only keep an eye on all your bunny minions&comma; but encourage them to continuously do your bidding&comma; either through financial motivation &lpar;you can arbitrarily pay anyone as the robot&rpar; or under direct threat of annihilation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233805&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-16-49-04-38&period;png"><img class&equals;" size-large wp-image-82879 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233805&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-16-49-04-38-1024x564&period;png" alt&equals;"OBEY 2014-10-10 16-49-04-38" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"341" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>OBEY&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> unique balance of risk and reward creates a pitiless atmosphere of self-interest and manipulation among players&period; Working for the robot pays&comma; but being the robot pays more&period; To subvert it&comma; you need to remove your collar&comma; but if you&&num;8217&semi;re spotted trying to sneak in&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be annihilated and waste precious time respawning&period; While sneaking around&comma; you also run the risk of other players ratting you out in attempt to curry favor&comma; and possibly a few extra cents&comma; from the robot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you can imagine&comma; honesty and loyalty have no place in <em>OBEY<&sol;em>&period; Successful strategies depend heavily on players&&num;8217&semi; ability to lie&comma; sneak&comma; steal&comma; and backstab&period; Therefore&comma; new players face the burden of learning the basic mechanics while also trying to determine if the orders they&&num;8217&semi;re getting from more seasoned players is actual advice&comma; or simply a manipulation&period; This steep&comma; unforgiving learning curve coupled with a naturally building mistrust of your fellow players may turn off or overwhelm some&period; However&comma; actually winning in <em>OBEY<&sol;em> is immensely satisfying&comma; especially for deviants like myself who inexplicably derive pleasure from deception&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233720&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-17-06-44-74&period;png"><img class&equals;" size-large wp-image-82882 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233720&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-17-06-44-74-1024x564&period;png" alt&equals;"OBEY 2014-10-10 17-06-44-74" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"341" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Visually&comma; <em>OBEY<&sol;em> is aggressively unremarkable&period; This design choice not only demonstrates the studio’s mantra of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;getting the most out of the simple&comma;” but it creates a strikingly charming contrast between the innocent and simple world with the darkly complex gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; as I often found myself getting stuck in the environment&comma; a little more detail and texture wouldn’t hurt&period; The final game will include a musical score&comma; however the build I got to play only included ambient sound&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233743&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-17-15-58-18&period;png"><img class&equals;" size-large wp-image-82881 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;05&sol;04233743&sol;OBEY-2014-10-10-17-15-58-18-1024x564&period;png" alt&equals;"OBEY 2014-10-10 17-15-58-18" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"341" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Like a good Indie game should&comma; <em>OBEY<&sol;em> breaks the mold and defies typical video game genre classification&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s both a compelling&comma; metaphorical social experiment and an immensely fun time&comma; especially with friends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While currently still a little rough on its execution &lpar;it’s only approximately 80&percnt; finished&rpar;&comma; it’s an exceptionally novel concept that should be experienced when it arrives on <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;346970&sol;">Steam<&sol;a> Early Access later this year for PC&comma; Mac&comma; and Linux&period; Until then&comma; if you’d like to know more&comma; check <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;obeygame&period;com&sol;">out the site<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><iframe src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;WtXeErX7D0o" width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" frameborder&equals;"0" allowfullscreen&equals;"allowfullscreen"><&sol;iframe><&sol;p>&NewLine;