2017 Thesis Presentations: Mary Georgescu’s ‘Spice of Life’

Spice of Life is a narrative arcade about Unit 25, a culinary line robot, who desires to become human and overcome his societal shackles in a post-tech war world, which despises strong, independent, artificial intelligence that “don’t need no hu-man”. The stakes are piled high and tensions are mounting as news breaks on the first day that an A.I. has taken charge of a human establishment! People are pouring in, but this isn’t what Unit 25 imagined humanity would be like. In this fast-paced, five-day story, players will become the eager and enthusiastic Unit 25! As an A.I.. finally permitted to interact with human customers, the player will be able to make dialogue choices that affect the difficulty of game-play, learn about personal circumstances, and gain humanity, while utilizing speed to turn over orders and keep impatient customers happy. You thought being a human in food service is hard.

Mary Georgescu is a artist and maker living and working in New York as the owner and director of Haiduc, LLC—a company dedicated to pushing the conventional boundaries of storytelling through mixed media while preserving folkloric tales. As a 2017 recipient of the Playcrafting Game Writing Grant, Mary hopes to continue learning, growing, and giving back to the community of indie gaming storytellers with more unconventional arcade cabinets!

PROJECT WEBSITE www.haiduc.org

INSTAGRAM swagasorusrex

TWITTER @marygeorgescu