At the Smash Party this Saturday night party-goers in Hollywood stepped into a cage clad in safety gear and completely crushed to bits anything and everything.
The party hosted by Chris Prynoski’s Titmouse animation studio was also the launch event for Smash Party, a VR experience combining Prynoski’s art with the destruct-o-thon spirit of the actual Smash Party.
The experience is pitched with the line “destruction, weirdness and sweet VR catharsis” and features TVs, vases and toilets created by Prynoski you can destroy in front of a virtual crowd. According to a description of the experience: “The more property damage inflicted, the higher up the leaderboard players will climb.”
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If you are unfamiliar, Titmouse is the studio behind shows including Metalocalypse, Superjail!, Venture Bros., Son of Zorn and Motorcity. Its first feature film is coming next month, Nerdland, which is voiced by Paul Rudd and Patton Oswalt. Prynoski worked with the emerging technology group at Viacom, Viacom Next, to get the Smash Party experience made. It is planned for release free on HTC Vive.
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I spoke to Prynoski about the difference between destroying real and virtual objects, and the satisfaction that comes with that. In the real world, “a new TV or toilet doesn’t immediately spawn in a nice pile,” Prynoski said. “You have to get shovels and move shit out of the way.”
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The VR version “is a lot more fast paced as far as the amount of things you can smash. Also, swinging around a baseball bat or sledgehammer is tiring.” With the VR experience, you might still get tired because it becomes “how many of these things can I possibly smash?”
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Look for it on Steam “soon.” And here, have another GIF.
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