Bitmap Banshees is a VR experience set inside a dystopian Amsterdam, where a gang of biker banshees have taken over the city and are out to get you. Players navigate a psychedelic-science-fiction-slash-B-grade-horror-frogger reality, and try to survive the cursed banshees for as long as they can. Cycling around the virtual city players collect ‘carrotty’s’ – secret weapon collectables in the form of supernatural carrots, to throw at advancing banshees to disable them and prolong one’s life in the game.
The installation includes a custom bike which acts as the gaming interface. Created from half an exercise bicycle, half an old Amsterdam bicycle and a bunch of wires and sensors – the physical bike allows users to cross dimensions and pedal inside the VR world. Wearing a modified VR headset, players sit on the interactive bike to pedal and steer inside the game world, and ring the bike’s special bell to unleash a defending carrotty’s blast.
