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Tainted

Collaborators

This project was done in collaboration with ITE College.

Overview

A first-person 3D adventure game that enables players to experience a traditional horror folklore using visual-auditory-olfactory interactions.

Key Problem(s)

Traditional games only engage audio and visual feedback but leave other human senses untouched.

Objective

This project aims to deliver an immersive gaming experience, by using additional olfactory stimuli to provide the game narrative and signal predefined game conditions (e.g. imminent threat, game hints). At the same time, differing smell stimuli attempt to invoke emotional responses such as fear and curiosity.

Solution

Tainted is a horror game, where players navigate a 3D world based on a traditional folklore of the pontianak (female vampiric ghost). A smell dispensing device is positioned in front of the player, which will emit four different smells and lights according to the progress within the game real-time. These smells correlate to an imminent presence of the pontianak or helpful items to escape the area, and players can utilize these cues to avoid danger and complete the game.

Deployment and Usage

Tainted was showcased at the following locations:

Tokyo Game Show 2016

Impact

Olfactory information is closely coupled with players’ experience and enjoyment of the narrative, as well as the smell-driven gameplay. Future studies of these factors will enable us to establish a framework to support multisensory game developers in the design of olfaction-enhanced games and other multimedia applications.