Defender

Defender is a 3-D on rails first person shooter arcade style game designed to assist and aid children who have developed middle ear infections or glue ear. Glue ear can lead to difficulties in hearing and can lead to children being unable to differentiate noise from certain directions hence losing their spatial audio awareness. The player takes control of a space ship turret in the midst of battle and must single out the directions alerts are coming from to find enemy ships before they pass the player and are out of range.

The game is designed to be played with the Oculus Rift and headphones so that it will immerse the player and put his or her hearing to the test. The player will then be given a score upon the levels completion that displays the amount of ships he or she has hit from each direction to show which ear the player favors or responds to the most. These results should be able to assist medical practitioners in their diagnosis of patients and help in their recovery from glue ear.

The game takes heavy influences from classic arcade games such as Space Invaders, R-Type and Gradius. We intended to create that sense of intensity, heightened action and excitement in a 3-D world, while implementing spatial audio as a key mechanic.