Game Jam Entry Simulates the Guillotine on Oculus Rift

Disunion – The guillotine simulator from André Berlemont on Vimeo.

The Oculus Rift wants to bring you as close to your games as possible. While technologies like 3D and motion control have helped to immerse players in the fantastical, colorful worlds that could only be possible outside of reality, this high-field-of-view, low-latency, head-mounted virtual reality kit is going the extra mile to change the way games are experienced. The potential of the crowd-funded device is far from fulfilled, but a recent demo created by a team at a Denmark game jam has discovered a method of simulating one of the most archaic, terrifying ways to die.

Erkki Trummal, André Berlemont, and Morten Brunbjerg attended last weekend’s Exile Game Jam, where a group of developers put their minds to the test from May 1 to May 5. This particular team took just two days to create an experience on the Oculus Rift like no other. Instead of incorporating the technology into a previously released game (which was done not long ago with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim), these Denmark natives recreated the guillotine in the most realistic manner possible. As you can see from the above video, willing testers assumed a helpless position as they watched the sharp blade come down on their necks. No player was harmed in the process, but it’s likely that none of them made it through the night without at least one nightmare.

The reaction to the Kickstarter success story has been strong, to say the least. A 90-year-old woman was recently caught swooning over the virtual reality gear, and with units now shipping, there should be plenty more exciting projects being shown.