“Rick and Morty” co-creator Justin Roiland and his new gaming company Squanchtendo are developing a debut virtual reality game titled “Accounting,” to be released for free with the HTC Vive system.
Before you watch the official trailer for “Accounting,” please note it contains explicit language and disturbing 3-D images.
At first, the player seems to interact with normal accounting tasks like “crunching numbers” and working with taxes. About 15 seconds in, the player puts on a VR headset and enters a game-within-a-game virtual reality world, where the bulk of the gameplay of “Accounting” will likely take place.
Players will be able to freely explore the 3-D game world, which appears to be born of the same chaotic psychedelia that brought much of the imagination and dark humor to Roiland’s cartoon series. Characters within the game world feature humorous and vulgar dialogue, much of which is improvised and voiced by Roiland himself.
Gameplay will emphasize free exploration and puzzles to be solved using the HTC Vive’s 360-degree visual technology and handheld controllers. The narrative will be very loose, guided by in-game characters’ reactions to the player in helpful, aggressive or sometimes intentionally annoying ways.
Some students at KSU expressed interest in trying the game when it is released.
“VR is really expensive,” said senior art major Jacob Volk. “I would definitely want to play the game though, if my friend had a Vive.”
Others are also hesitant to pay $800 for an HTC Vive, which they consider to still be experimental technology not yet worth the price.
“For something so expensive, I don’t feel like many VR games today really use the technology to its full potential,” said sophomore information systems major Tyus Carver. “This game does seem like a step in the right direction to make something super experimental, and who better to make something like that than the creator of ‘Rick and Morty?’”
Senior business major Zac Daniel said he was not very familiar with Roiland’s work on the animated show, but he did express general interest in what a game like “Accounting” could mean for the direction of virtual reality games.
“I thing VR is a good thing for video games,” Daniel said. “I usually game on my Xbox One, but I feel like VR gaming is like a step into the future.”
Although the dark humor and imaginative style of “Accounting” seems reminiscent of “Rick and Morty,” Roiland has stated that Squanchtendo’s game is fully independent from the series.
Squanchtendo consists of Roiland and Tanya Watson, former executive producer of Epic Games — responsible for the “Gears of War” series and “Unreal Tournament 3.”
“Accounting” is being developed by a partnership of Squanchtendo and indie game developer Crows, Crows, Crows.
There is no official release date for the game yet, but it will be “available soon” free of charge in the hopes of promoting future releases from Squanchtendo and Crows, Crows, Crows.