Immersive Design in Arcade Games: Walking Dead Arcade

Walking Dead Arcade



Another game I played while at Dave and Buster's was Walking Dead Arcade, which as you probably guessed, is based off of AMC's The Walking Dead TV series. There were a few features which really drew me to this game, most notably the crossbow controller, and overhead light.


The Interior of the Booth / Specifications

The booth, which can seat two players, has a 55" 1080p screen that supports 60 frames per second. The game features the "Thrill-D Sound System" allowing for "pumping sound" during play. What this "Thrill-D" sound system actually features remains to be seen, but it seems like it has 5.1 surround sound as there are speakers throughout the cabinet. Lastly, there is the "'Ambient Lighting' system [which] dynamically changes the lighting within the game cabinet to simulate events such as going outdoors from a dark space".

Controls

The game is controlled via mounted crossbow controllers which has a trigger to shoot, and a handle you pull back to reload your clip, pretty simple.

The Crossbow controller. You can see the orange light bar near the back of the controller.

There is a light bar along the edge of the mounting of the controller indicating which player you are (green or blue). There is another light bar on top of the frame near the handle which lights up each time you shoot a bolt, providing the player with good feedback! I do wish there was a slight rumble each time you fired though.


HUD Elements

Walkers you kill have their models become highlighted with the color corresponding to your player (green or blue), indicating who got the kill. There are also shootable objects, which are outlined in red, which you can shoot at for an effect (i.e. shooting an explosive container to kill multiple walkers).

The players' health and number of kills are located in the top left and right-hand corners of the screen while the number of bolts in your crossbow magazine are listed in the bottom left and right-hand corners of the screen.

A screenshot of the game.

Gameplay

Like most light gun arcade games, Walking Dead Arcade is an on-rails shooter where you must progress through levels killing zombies and staying alive. Shooting a walker in body require multiple shots to kill, however getting a head shot will result in an instant kill.

Throughout gameplay, there are "quick time events" (QTEs) where time slows down and the player(s) must perform an action before the timer runs out. The most common of which requires you to quickly kill walkers before they kill a survivor; doing so within the time frame results in score bonus for the player(s).

You can see a video of a full playthrough by Arcade Wreckage here.

Overall ‘Immersiveness’

While the gameplay of Walking Dead Arcade is nothing extraordinary, the most standout aspects of Walking Dead Arcade are the controller and 'ambient lighting' system.

The crossbow controller is a perfect example of Realistic Tangible Naturally Mapped controls, which have been found to increase players' sense of immersion, presence and enjoyment in games (Shafer, Carbonara, Popova, 2014).

Realistic Tangible Natural Mapping refers to a controller that "directly relates to the real-life activity the game simulates". Since the main weapon you are using in the game to kill walkers is a crossbow, having the controller be shaped like an actual crossbow that you can reload with a lever is an awesome feature. However, this goes out the window when you pick up another weapon like the hammer for example.

What is even cooler about the controller is that in order to reload you have to grab the handle to "pull" the bowstring back like you would reload a crossbow normally. Despite this, I do have one small gripe about the controller as it is not entirely realistic that you don't have to reload the bow after each shot like a normal crossbow.

While reloading after each shot you take would make the game "more realistic", this would make the game much more difficult and probably very frustrating and tedious for players, so it makes sense why the developers gave you a 8 shot "magazine".

The survivor in plaid has been grabbed by a zombie, meaning a QTE is about to begin.
 I couldn't find a better image unfortunately.

It would have been cool to be able to freely hold the crossbow in your hands rather than have it be mounted on the dashboard like it is now. I can only imagine why the developers choose to mount the controller instead of being able to hold it, but it was likely due to the weight of the controller, difficulty reloading the bow, and/or difficulty aiming at enemies on the screen.

But what really sets the game apart from any other that I've played is the 'ambient lighting' system, which changes color and intensity depending on your surroundings.

The two most memorable example of this is when a signal flare is cracked, filling the entire booth with a bright red light, and when you exit a dark room to the outside, which fills the booth with a bright white light. Unfortunately I could not find a good video showcasing this effect so you will have to take my word for it.

The lighting effects really make you feel like you are in the environment that your characters are currently in. While I am not 100% to the extent to which these lighting effects would enhance a player's sense of immersion, I'd imagine they must influence immersion in the same way that watching a scary movie with the lights off influences a viewer (which can be quite a bit).

Unlike many arcade games, Walking Dead Arcade  barely has any pop-ups during gameplay, which is something that can go a long way to reducing sensory overload and keeping players focused on the action.

Since there only "score" that is tracked are the number of kills you have, this eliminates the need for "score pop-ups" appearing on screen that are so often included in other arcade games. Additionally, whenever you get a kill, there isn't a pop-up saying "YOU GOT A KILL!", all there is is simply an update to the number of kills you have in the top corner of the screen, greatly reducing the chance it will distract the player during gameplay.

The only pop-ups that do occur during gameplay are when you run out of health and must deposit more coins, and when you run out of ammo in your crossbow. Both of which are reasonably sized and don't take up too much space on the screen.

I really hope more arcade games adopt this kind of practice, as I find the sheer amount of pop-ups in games like Jurassic Park Arcade and Star Wars Battle Pod quite distracting and takes away from the overall experience.

Overall, the game is pretty fun, and I'd definitely a playthrough of it with a friend. Hopefully your partner won't be complain as much as mine did when we played. He's a bit of a sour sort, but he grows on you after a while.

I don't watch The Walking Dead so this was the best I could come up with. I'm sorry to let you down.

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References

Shafer, D. M., Carbonara, C. P., & Popova, L. (2014). Controller required? The impact of natural mapping on interactivity, realism, presence, and enjoyment in motion-based video games. Presence: Tele-operators and Virtual Environments, 23(3), 267-286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/PRES_a_00193.