Haber Dasher Is A Co-Op Game You Play With A Huge, Real Life Hat
The concept of being some sort of non-human entity attempting to pass themselves off as a normal human is nothing new to games, but doing so while wearing a truly enormous hat? That's new. And it's super weird, and it'll be showcased at The 2023 Game Developers Conference.
From Georgia Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate Erin J.K. Truesdell comes Haber Dasher, the game where two players don a massive hat to make an alien pass off as a human. "In Haber Dasher, two players take on the role of an alien named Zorg who is attempting to take over Earth by gaining power among the humans as a businessman," writes Truesdell. Acting like a businessman isn't too difficult--all you have to do is pick up a briefcase, get some coffee, and then head to the office.
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The only problem is you're really two aliens wearing a huge hat. The hat is the controller which determines where Zorg moves. Tilt the hat forward to walk forward, backward to step backward, and side to side to turn. Although the hat is relatively light for its size, it's still large and awkward, and it's also worn by two people. You have to work together with your co-op partner to ensure the hat is angled appropriately for Zorg to pass off as human.
Technically speaking, the game is fairly simple. There are no other controls other than a hat feeding motion sensor data from a phone into a virtual urban landscape made in Unity. The fun comes in how truly difficult it is for two people to wear the same hat.
"I drew a lot of story inspiration from the scene in Men In Black 2 where a ‘person’s’ head pops open and it turns out he’s a tiny alien operating a human mech-suit," Truesdell told Game
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