What's new in each version. The game is a prototype and changes fast.
v0.10.0The Living Crowd
The crowd sounds alive: real shouts, people talking around you, chants, chatter and roars rolling through the march, placed on the people near you.
Up to five crowd sound beds play at once and keep changing, so you never hear the loop.
Far-off voices sound distant, and loud moments no longer distort.
An air horn goes off somewhere in the march every couple of minutes.
The game has a home: protestsimulator.com, with a light version for phones and a new full-quality version for computers (sharper textures, the full crowd, more people animated around you).
v0.9.0Opening Shot
A title screen through someone's phone on the City Hall steps; press start and it zooms in and locks focus on you.
You start on the sidewalk across from the rally, with 10 seconds before anyone can touch you (also after you wake up from a knockout).
Every voice re-recorded with a natural-sounding voice.
Shout at people (R): they shout back, square up, run off, or call their mates over to fight you.
Get surrounded and walk the circle into more of the march: they join in, up to 100 people around you.
Gone: the giant yellow mascot heads and the constant air horns.
v0.8.0Square Up
Killcam: hit someone with a thrown object and watch the impact, them going down and everyone reacting. The world holds still until it's over.
Punch a man and he squares up: a one-on-one fist fight with a side-on camera and a ring of people chanting. Run if you want.
Fall damage (landing on people breaks your fall).
Bricks fly further on a rounder arc; more things to throw on every rooftop.
Thrown trash cans and newspaper boxes flatten the people where they land; some punches and shoves put people on the floor.
Black bloc agitators smash car windows, shove cops, rob stalls and get in your face for no reason.
v0.7.0Escalation
Playable in a browser, phones included, with touch controls (works upright or sideways).
Anger builds in steps: a few people in your face, then a ring of 15-25 shouting and chest-bumping, then the beating.
Lock-on (Q) and hold E to grab a person, so you stop grabbing the wrong thing.
Chaos toys: a money gun, silly string, a confetti cannon, a lighter, a fire extinguisher, beach balls.
Objectives to chase, with headlines on the big screen when you pull them off.
People on the ground can't punch you on a rooftop any more.
v0.6.0Side Streets
Side streets with storefronts, parked cars (with alarms), bikes, vendors and people hanging about.
Firecrackers, smoke flares, graffiti sprayers, a police loudspeaker, a helicopter spotlight and a sound-system bike.
People call you out, point at you and film you when you misbehave.
Kick (F). New people, a new player character and new buildings.
The phone-footage look (V).
v0.5.0Real March
Police lines at the barricades and the City Hall steps; they hold the mob back rather than fight you.
Stewards in hi-vis, onlookers on every block, street trees and greenery.
Most of the march in black bloc; a crowd that looks like a real American city.
Banners carried across the march, a rally speaker on stage, news crews, drum lines.
Jab, cross and a heavy finisher; a scarier mob rush as they close in.
Momentum, leaning and stumbles: movement that feels like an action game.
v0.4.0Who Threw That
Throw something and witnesses work out who did it, unless you get away.
The whole crowd drawn as real people; knocked-down people go ragdoll.
Signs, chants and call-and-response; the rally in the plaza; a counter-protest that brawls with the march.
Pick people up and throw them. Stampedes, a grandma with a handbag, riot fires, a big screen with a news ticker.
Night falls over half an hour.
v0.3.0Heat
A crowd of thousands, and hit someone in plain sight and hundreds come for you.
Things to swing and throw: shovels, cones, trash cans, bottles, rooftop bricks.
Different kinds of marchers, sounds for everything.
v0.2.0First Punch
Punch, shove, throw bricks and swing signs. Vault fences and climb ladders. Slow motion.
Crowd moods: calm, angry, violent, filming.
v0.1.0Greybox
The first playable street: a march through Anywhere, USA, a player and a camera.