Stage Presence challenges you to entertain hostile crowds in VR

The game will be available as a standard desktop app as well as an Oculus Rift-ready experience.

2

In a game that could either help or exacerbate cases of stage fright, Stage Presence sees your band take to the stage at a major music festival... only for your band's equipment to fail, leaving you with only your microphone and voice to prevent the crowd from rioting.

Developed by Sea Green Games and published by tinyBuild, Stage Presence holds the potential to be one of VR's more interesting experiments. You can play on regular old monitors, or you can connect a guitar amplifier and/or microphone, strap on your headset, and put yourself on-stage, facing off against a fidgety mob demanding to be entertained.

According to the game's Steam Greenlight page, there are multiple game modes and venues to play through, and crows respond in different ways to help you gauge your success: happy crowds burst into cheers and crowd surf, while increasingly hostile audiences lob insults (and bottles filled to the brim with bodily fluids) your way, and shine laser pens in your eyes.

Sea Green claims the audiences in Stage Presence can respond to your every word: singing or babbling are both viable options; whatever you do, keep it going while your band rushes to repair equipment and get back in the game. A multiplayer mode, clearly inspired by Dark Souls, allows you to invade crowds and lead them in favor of or against other players.

Stage Presence will be available on Steam and Oculus Rift later this summer.

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.

From The Chatty
Hello, Meet Lola