Waitlisted
A survival game that critiques the difficulties of accessing psychological help, showing people with depression that they are not alone in their experience.
PowCow
A fun VR game about the waste of resources in the meat industry.
Shooting cows with corn to show the food waste in the meat industry
the inefficiency of the meat industry
An old project that always makes me happy. PowCow was created on commission by Transmango, a European initiative for the sustainability of the food industry. It was created in six weeks, and I would love to do more games like this.
A silly solution to a serious problem
PowCow is a VR video game where you shoot cows to feed them corn. The cows walk towards you and will eat you if you don’t feed them in time. By feeding them corn, they will get swell until they explode into steaks. We chose this absurd premise because it is an easy way to pull people in and make them aware of the problem while playing a fun game.
Showing the amount of resources required for meat
When the player dies by the overwhelming amount of cows, the player gets a result screen with how many cows they turned into steak. Next to this number is the amount of corn that was required to feed that cow, which is eight times higher. Finally, there is a column showing the amount of water used to grow that corn, which is 4 times the volume of feed.
Testing the impact on the Pukkelpop festival
What better crowd to test your video game on than drunk young adults? We were definitely the hit of the commercial booths in the festival. There was a line of people enticed by shooting cows and waiting to try the special controller. While in line and after the experience, we asked participants what their thoughts were on the meat industry and found out most people were shocked by its wastefulness.
