THE BOOZE CRUISE: A Driving Game with a Serious Drinking Problem

Genre: Serious Game

Blurb:  The Booze Cruise is a computer driving game where you get an insider’s feel of what it’s like to drive under the influence of booze and pills. As either a male or female player, you crawl out of the trunk of your car, hammered, but still aiming to get Home in 90 Seconds. Problem is, bizarre hazards emerge – kids, Elvis, checkstop cops, zombies, pink elephants, and as you crash and collide you lose demerit points, your insurance costs skyrocket, and your licence gets suspended for years. How might you run the course clean? And how did you get into the trunk of the car in the first place?

Demographic: All Ages.

Description: Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) can have severe consequences, including serious injury and death. The Booze Cruise is a two-level serious computer game where participants get an insider's feel of what it's like to drive while drunk and stoned. Players drive a 90-second course at a .25+ percent blood alcohol level, leading to thrills, chills, surprises and dire consequences. The development team at the Digital Media Lab at the University of Calgary, in conjunction with the Calgary Police Service Alcohol Unit, has made a working prototype of level one to gauge reactions and gain insights into the potential of completing of the full game.

The game action plays out as a narrative scenario. The inciting incident is that the boozed-up player, either as a male or female, crawls out of the trunk of a car knowing that they're drunk for some mysterious reason and that they have 90 seconds to get Home. The car revs up for a night-drive that takes players through a hectic escalating series of plot hazards that get weirder as time ticks down. Simple pylons and barricades quickly progress to kids and old people on the road, and then on to a bizarre zone of pink elephants, slithering dragons, aliens, a phantom Elvis, and police checkstops, among other dangers. If the player runs out of time or misses their Home exit, they are engulfed in the sights and sounds of a police bust and it's game over. Even if the player makes it Home, negative consequences ensue – they must face their tally of demerit points, increased insurance payments, and possible jail time. However, they are also rewarded with the news that they are “still in the game,” hinting that they should take another stab at it.

The overall stylistic approach to the game is to use humour and a factor of fun to dole out the fact that it's idiotic to drink and drive. The player's feeling of being under the influence of alcohol and drugs is simulated in several ways: through the other-wordly sound design and music, the saturated colours and liquid weirdness of the design aesthetics, and, most importantly, through the woozy action of the vehicle itself. These actions and reactions were developed in conjunction with Constable Rob Haffner of The Calgary Police Service Alcohol Unit.

Contact for The Booze Cruise:

James Parker or Lori Shyba

Digital Media Laboratory, Faculty of Fine Arts

University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

E-mail, jparker@ucalgary.ca or lori.shyba@shaw.ca

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