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₊˚⊹Welcome to Cows Vs Aliens⊹˚₊

~ an alt ctrl co-op arcade game ~

You are two aliens vacationing Earth together and have discovered the cutest creature you’ve ever laid eyes on: COWS! Sit in and operate our command chair controllers to collect as many cows as you can to maintain your happiness meter, but don’t fall for the decoys! FBI agents, suspicious of extraterrestrial activity, are disguised as cows and are out to get you AND your new beloveds!

Watch the trailer!

Meet the Team: Moo-niverse Entertainment!

Click on each of our names below to check out our individual contributions!

Em Dryer: Lead Producer, Audio Designer, Experience Designer

Eriane Austria: Game Producer, Designer, & Programmer; UX Designer

Emily Mercado: Concept Artist, 2D Game Artist, Animator, Level Designer

Larenz Harrington: Alt Controller Fabricator, Programmer, & Designer

Christine Chen: Concept Artist, 2D Game Artist, UI Artist, Animator

₊˚⊹Gameplay⊹˚₊

Cows Vs Aliens is a 3/4th top-down, 2d pixel art co-op endless runner that challenges two players' teamwork to collect the most cows, all while avoiding FBI detection and obstacles. Both movement and collection mechanics are separated into tasks for two players. 

Co-Op Controls

Moo-vement is divided into horizontal and vertical directions. Move together to collect as many cows possible, while avoiding FBI and obstacles!

Collection is divided into a two-step process of 1) beam activation and 2) collection. Work together to coordinate collection of cows -- not FBI!

P1 - Move L/R  ||  P2 - Move Up/Down  ||  P1 - Activate Beam  ||  P2 - Collect

Our Alt Controllers: UFO Commander Chairs

This distribution of controls is seen in our "alt-controllers" (alternative-controllers, or controls distinct from the traditional console controllers or the PC keyboard and mouse), of two chairs, each with a corresponding button. 

Player 1 (P1)'s chair controls horizontal movement by swiveling left and right, with a red button that can be held down to activate the beam. 

Player 2 (P2)'s chair controls vertical movement by leaning forward and backward, with a green button that collects cows and is only able to work when P1's red beam is already activated. 

This separation of directional movement and two-step collection process requires you to communicate and match your teammate's actions in order to succeed!

P1 on right with red beam activation button
P2 on left with green collection button

Take a look at how our alt controllers work with gameplay!

**NOTE: We designed this game to be played with our alt controllers BUT you can still play using keyboard in-browser!**

Open Pause Menu:

[Escape]

** If playing in full screen, exit full screen first using [Escape], then hit [Escape] again to pause.

P1:
[A] [D] = L/R Horizontal Movement
[Space] = Hold to Activate Beam

P2:
[Up Arrow] [Down Arrow] = Up/Down Vertical Movement
[ \ ] = Tap to Collect

Game Progression

GAME OVER = FULL Conspiracy Meter OR EMPTY Happiness Meter

Conspiracy from FBI Detection: FBI will disguise themselves as fake cows, hide amongst the bushes, and use their detection technology to try and confirm your existence as aliens. In order to avoid being caught, you must synchronize your movement to not hover over, activate your beam on, and worst of all, collect the FBI as they will steal one of your cows! Your conspiracy meter increases each time you are detected by the FBI with different levels of severity depending on how you were detected. If your conspiracy bar is full, it'll be a game over. 

Happiness from Cows: Your happiness meter increases when you collect cows. If you haven't collected a cow in a while, your happiness will steadily decrease until you collect another cow (aka Cow Drought). The more cows you have in your ship, the more in love with them you become and will want to collect ASAP to stay happy! Collisions into obstacles like farm buildings and trees will also decrease your happiness and even knock a cow out from your UFO! An empty happiness meter means game over.

Difficulty: You will first be introduced to the gameplay in a tutorial and will be sent to the main game afterwards. The farther you get into the game, the more different environments and higher difficulty progression you will experience!

Score

Your score is the number of cows you collected together! Once you reach game over, your score will be recorded to (potentially) be shown in the top 10 scores on the leaderboard. We hope to ignite a competitive spirit in both of you to replay and achieve an even higher, out-of-this-world score! 

Soundtrack

Played the game and can't get enough of these udderly sweet tunes? Check out the tracks in our very own Cow-lbum on SoundCloud!

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1735074237&color=%235d3562&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true

₊˚⊹Experience Design⊹˚₊

Cows Vs Aliens is an experience that extends beyond the game! We developed physical and digital experiences that allow you to interact with our story in new and unique ways. 

In-person Installation

Before in-person players get to use our custom-built chair controllers, they are beamed up into the spaceship just like the cows! This fun interaction invites players to engage with our story before even playing the game; attracts viewers by serving as an easily identifiable location signifier; and immerses players by subtly surrounding their field of view and creating a discrete space to play!

An in-person installation to complement our unique gameplay experience!

Cows Vs Aliens Social AR Filter

We also developed a Social AR effect in Meta Spark for you to interact with our game in a mobile context. The filter utilizes our game's art assets and face tracking to generate organic exposure. It is intuitively interactive and has already brought new audiences to our game!

Scan the QR code below to try it out yourself!