A Game of Life and Breath | TFS Video Game Students Unveil ‘DystO2pia’
Toronto Film School’s graduating class of Video Game students recently unveiled their breathtaking new game DystO2pia during a virtual capstone showcase event.
Described as a “thrilling” first-person horror survival game, DystO2pia is set on a ravaged planet Earth in 2045, where AI has taken over and humans are struggling to survive. Players need to navigate a world where every breath they take is a matter of life and death and deadly robotic enemies are out to get them at every turn.
“While managing their oxygen levels, players have to use their stealth and other tools to try to sneak around the facility to get to the mainframe,” explained Video Game Design & Animation grad Kaitlyn Winter, DystO2pia’s Director of Production.
“Once the player has successfully made it to the mainframe, they will then be met by Equinox, the master AI behind everything. The player then must then decide to either help humanity or side with AI to destroy the humans.”
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Oxygen, said Video Game Design & Development grad Mitchell Chesboro, is DystO2pia’s main mechanic – which is why the Chaos Monkeys Studios team behind the game decided to sneak “O2” into the title of the game.
“Oxygen is your lifeblood as you adventure through the abandoned world of DystO2pia, because every action you make as a player uses up your oxygen, just as in real life,” explained Chesboro, the game’s Technical Director.
“If you’re standing still, you’re breathing and using up oxygen. If you’re walking, running, jumping, you’re using up even more oxygen. Every action in DystO2pia is associated with a cost of oxygen consumption.”
As a player’s oxygen levels get lower, the player will start to experience different side effects – including hallucinations and hypoxia.
Winter said that when she, Chesboro and their fellow Chaos Monkeys first started brainstorming what kind of game they wanted to make, they quickly came to the decision to steer away from making it combat-centred, for fear of taking away from its horror theme. Instead, they opted to create a game where the main focus is to “seek, defend and survive.”
“That decision led us to choose stealth as the main way to get past enemies,” she said, noting that this strategy also adds to the O2 mechanic, as it forces players to really think about how they’re going to manoeuvre the environment.
“It also adds a fun layer of complexity to the game, because players need to achieve their objectives while maintaining their oxygen levels. That said, we didn’t want the players to be completely defenceless against enemies, so we created a crafting system, where players can craft tools such as a taser, a glass bottle, and a noise maker, in order to give them a fair chance at getting away from the enemy.”
The game’s story-driven narrative also challenges players to reflect on the morality of their choices, Winter said.
“Beyond using dialogue to tell the story, we also used the environment of the game to immerse the players into a world of chaos,” she explained.
“The abandoned cluttered spaces, and chaotic, torn-apart rooms help paint a vivid picture of humanity’s frantic attempts to escape the AI takeover. Those, combined with atmospheric elements, detailed audio logs, and cinematic cuts, helped us build a world that feels urgent and deeply engaging to the player.”
Watch the Dyst02pia trailer:
The Chaos Monkeys Studios Leadership Team Behind Dyst02pia:
Kaitlyn Winter – Director of Production
Hermes Calabria – Art Director
Nicholas Angle – Creative Director
Kristen Bowen – Game Design Lead
Jumari Tan – Technical Art Lead
Natalie Heppler – Animation Lead
Mitchell Chesboro – Technical Producer
Jacy Arndt-Whitfield – Audio Director
