The third project I did was with the Kartfabrique. The Kartfabrique is located in an old compound feed factory in Maarssen. This family business houses various activities such as Karting, Prison Island, and Lasergaming. In their opinion, a change was needed in laser gaming. They wanted to make it an authentic, fun, and repeatable experience. The Kartfabrique asked us to use aspects from first-person shooter games and integrate them into laser gaming.

 

My team and I came up with the New World Order concept. In an apocalyptic world:

​

"The government has fallen, and power is in the hands of 2 private armies: The Sirens and Phoenix. The Sirens fight for peace, whilst Phoenix fights for the rebirth of a new world by destroying the old one. Energy is scarce, but a factory in the middle of the country that once served as a laboratory for developing a new energy source houses one of the last reactors. The late scientists have not left it unprotected. Rumors have been going around about two monstrous guardians protecting the last reactor. Anyone who has set foot in the factory to claim the reactor was never heard of again."

 

I was in charge of the character design. The design of the 'Guardians' is based entirely on the mechanics and the power-ups they use in the current laser tag game. These are a shield, which enables one to become temporarily immune to bullets; invisibility, which shuts down the lights of the suit and enables the player to blend in with the darkness and spy, which allows the player to adopt the colors of the different team, enabling them to take out the enemy from the inside. The Goliath is bulky and clearly has good defensive abilities, like the shield power-up. The trickster is sneaky and misleading, like the invisibility and spy power-ups. 

​

We gave both teams different logos and briefings at the beginning of the game. That way, the players can hear two sides of the story and play competitively. If the Sirens win at the end of the game, then the factory is taken by the Sirens, and a scoreboard will keep tabs on the current conquerors. When the other team wins, the previous winner will receive a 'Kill contract' via email asking them if they want to return and take back the factory. This stimulates the return of customers and ensures even more competitiveness.

​

The journey to creating the final project has been documented in a 'making of' video:

​