The Bog Arcade

The Bog is a game about kinetic movement in the digital and physical space. When players swerve their bug around to face their opponent or swoop into the whirlpool to save an egg, we want their bodies to be engaged with the controller, twisting and turning alongside the character on the screen.

The controller we designed for The Bog takes inspiration from the arcade game Virtual On, which uses tank controls to pilot large mechs. Like the robots it features, Virtual On is rigid and unyielding. It is a game about precise movements and timing. Other games using similar controls such as Battlezone feature tanks or slow-moving vehicles as the player avatar.

Our goal with The Bog was to take that control scheme and make it faster and more organic. We want players to sweep across the map and swing their bugs round in sinuous, fluid figures. With their bodies, we want players making big movements, slamming the joysticks forward, twisting their shoulders as they wrench the controls around to spin and face their opponents.

The experience of our game is about standing shoulder to shoulder with your friends while battling it out for domination over the alien swamp. We chose a 2v2 format so that players could learn the controls alongside one another while outmaneuvering their foes. The new arcade scene is focused on the social aspects of getting together with a group of people and enjoying games in local spaces, mostly bars.

The Bog is a development of that experience, a game that is about mastery of movements and coordination over the din of a barcade.

The Bog is a project created for the NYU Game Center 2020 MFA Thesis by:

Virginia Wilkerson

Siddarth Govindan

Chapin Boyer