BBB_ Songs of Cyborgeoisie

Songs of Cyborgeoisie is a philosophical audio-visual journey through a sci-fi universe, populated by technological, organic, and fantastic beings who share their sorrows and hopes, in order to heal human imagination from the pervading techno-dystopian narratives.

The game invites the player to explore philosophical ideas on non-human intelligences and empathy as a source of inspiration to handle the fear of technological futures being perceived as dystopian.

Explore the personal stories and traumas of the Boston Dynamic BigDog, queer feminist Artificial Intelligence, Narcissistic Algorithm, and depressed conjoint Twin Hologram, which they share while in group therapy session held by the empathetic care Robot Robear.

Learn the advice that characters like Other Intelligences and Hopeful Bacteria have to give, to change the fate of technological futures from a place of fear to a place of hope.

Game trailer

The story is narrated with the corresponding album Songs, which atmospherically tell of the story of Cyborgeoisie with rich and complex textures, composed with elements of polyphonic voices and generative sounds, a choir, acoustic instruments, and a mixture of soft and rough electronic music - a mesmerizing and immersive, spoken word sci-fi opera.

This gaming experience evolves in 60 minutes, in the course of the 12 levels and corresponding music tracks. Each level is narrated and played with another character, and is 3-12 min long, with transition videos between some of the levels. Each level offers philosophical quests, meant to challenge the player's perception. It is also possible to access each song and level separately and learn about the characters via the in-game menu.

Full gameplay

Songs of Cyborgeoisie is a project that includes a music album, a hybrid multiplayer live opera with motion capture, a deck of tarot cards, and a computer gaming experience. Following the release of the music album and live sci-fi opera at the Balance Festival (Leipzig, 2022), BBB_ (allapopp and Alex Sahm) are presenting an independent pilot release of the standalone computer gaming experience.

The music album https://homepage-bbb.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-cyborgeoisie

Credits

Concept, story, music & artistic direction by BBB_ (allapopp & Alex Sahm)

Game visual & world design: Lixing Yang

Unreal Engine implementation and programming, technical direction: Simon Klein

UI, visual identity & menu design: Teresa Schönherr

Character design: allapopp, Valentin Oellers, Lars Thomas

Character animation: Simon Klein, Gloria Schulz

Tarot cards design: Teresa Schönherr

Tarot cards illustrations: Katharina Hantke, Lixing Yang, Lotte Meret, allapopp, Valentin Oellers, Maria Anisimowa, Ayla Pierrot Arendt, Philisha Kay, Brenda Lien, Ksti Hu, Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Louise Mutabazi, Sonja Yakovleva, Echo Can Luo

Model of Cute Home Robot by Yandrack, texture color altered from original; Model Orb by End3r, textures changed from original, under CC BY 4.0