'Her' Video Game Designer Builds Game of His Own

By Fusion Staff  |  June 13, 2014 | 9:10pm
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Most people who saw Spike Jonze’s movie “Her” can recall the memorable scene where Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin Phoenix, interacts with a dirty-mouthed green alien while he explores a beautifully designed holographic video game. Now, David O’Reilly, the creator of that pretty awesome visual experience, is about to release his own game called “Mountain.”

Showcased at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles yesterday, Mountain is described as a mountain simulator. “You play as a mountain, and you get to do all the things that a mountain does. I’m sure that fulfills all of your darkest and most disgusting fantasies.” explained O’Reilly.

O’Reilly became interested in designing a game right after “Her” but wanted to create a singular experience, and this concept “satisfied a lot of the things” he wanted to explore.

Once the game is booted up you are greeted with the words, “Welcome to Mountain. You are Mountain. You are God.”

The game then proceeds to ask you a question that O’Reilly identifies as “more psychologically invasive than anything Facebook wants to know about you.” and follows with other questions about hate and love and how you feel about your mom. It then has you draw an image to express the idea, which then it finally converts into a mountain.

Day and night cycles throughout the game and so do seasons where you can actually play God and hit your mountain with dynamically created snow, rain, fog that affects what grows, lives and dies on the mountain.

“We as humans feel all big because we build great things but the fact is that mountains dwarf us.” said O’Reilly

The game is set to be launched June 21st for the price of “about a dollar”.

You can get it here.

Julian Reyes is a VR Producer for Fusion.

 
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