Can’t wait to get your hands on the latest videogame? Do you like shooters like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D? Why not try Waiting in Line 3D, a first-person punching game about a man waiting outside in a queue. There are no enemies in the game, but in the long wait of what’s to be anticipated, the player must stay awake by punching themselves in the face. Punch yourself too often, and you’ll die – too little, and you’ll ultimately fall asleep. The goal is to stay awake.
The game’s style is similar to that of Wolfenstein 3D, Road Rash, and other 90’s games that took heavily pixelated pictures of real world settings and overlaid them to create a virtual reality. You’ll notice that the level design looks similar to early PlayStation games.
The game is made by Rajeev Basu, an interactive artist from London, known for having humor being “a big part of” his “work.” He’s made such pieces like a brash set of “greeting” cards that were rejected from various card publishing companies, as well as a concept album called EEP EEP EEP EP, which is composed entirely with alarms. Appropriately, Basu copyrights his game circa 1991.
Basu told Wire.co.uk that it’s an “anti-game”, which means it “deliberately undermines the very idea of what a game is meant to be”.
Basu teamed up with Alex Anderson (AKA ManCub), a musician based in Denver Colorado who incorporated his first single, “Friends Listen” in the game. Anderson’s tracks match the echoic distant sound and feel of the 90’s – a kind of new age and experimental music style that sounds like a more upbeat version of Moby’s early work combined with Jesus Jones. Basu said that he and Anderson “shared a similar kind of thinking,” adding that both of them liked “creating things that are a bit ‘off’ and messing with people.”
“The game isn’t interesting, exciting or fun.”
“I think we succeeded.”
And yet, despite the game being so mundane, there have been “tens of thousands” of internet users playing Waiting in Line 3D with a total of 48 hours. While most players only last for a couple minutes, one player managed to stand in line for 27 minutes.
Go and give it a shot at WaitingInLine3D.com.
(Pictures via Rajeev Basu, WaitingInLine3D.com)