While we were strolling around the thin booths at E3 this year, we managed to stumble on an indie studio Eddo Stern with a very interesting offering called Darkgame. At first, we looked at the device and thought it may be use for something indecent but we were then told that it actually is meant to be put onto your head.

After we fitted it to our heads, what happened next was quite an interesting experience. The representative we spoke to indicated that the prototype game was a simple shooter game that would allow players to sense where their opponents were simply by feeling them out. Using the head mounted device, players are given gentle pulses that change direction depending on where your opponents move. Senior News Editor Marcus Yam and I took it upon ourselves to put on the device and look ridiculous in the attempt to find out whether or not this system actually worked. It did.

The author tries on the Darkgame headgear at E3 2008.

The simple game only allows one of the two players to actually see what's happening on their screen. The offensive player's screen is blacked out, and the only way to "hunt" the opponent is to feel them out by the pulses on your head. The hunted player runs around and tries to capture a moving object to switch positions and become the hunter.

After several minutes of playing, we were surprised at how much fun the game was. The controls though, were a little bit cumbersome, only allowing you to move in four main directions without actually being able to turn - or run. The game allows your character to fire in any direction however.

A diagram of the Darkgame headgear.

Graphics were essentially several years old, but got the job down and served its purposes. Although the environment was in 3D, camera view was fixed to a slightly angled bird's eye view. Sounds were also very basic, with a single music track and basic shooting sound effects. Clearly Darkgame focuses on sensory feedback as its main hook.

According to the creators, Darkgame is intended for the Xbox 360 but did not specify whether the game would offer any other features and offer more network play. No release date information was given either but we think there needs to be much more added to the game than what's currently available before the creators actually make it available.

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