Harold Halibut download for free for PC

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Harold Halibut is an adventure game set in a sci-fi environment and characterised by extraordinary, hand-crafted visuals. Elements of the game’s environment were created as real props made of wood, fabric and other materials, and then converted into virtual 3D objects using photogrammetry, ready for digital manipulation and insertion into the engine used. Harold Halibut download for free for PC.

Responsible for the development of this unique game is the small German studio Slow Bros., which has already produced several experimental artistic works. These include Klanglichter, a laser harp project that combines the features of a musical instrument and a computer game. Also worth mentioning is a small VR game called Outcasted, in which you take on the role of a disillusioned man begging on the streets of a modern city.

The plot of the game

The action of Harold Halibut takes place aboard an Ark ship sunk in the depths of an alien water planet. The ship is massive, and its vast decks are filled with shops, pubs and even fake city streets, complete with lampposts. As befits a vehicle carrying participants in an interstellar expedition, it also contains well-equipped laboratories. However, the ship’s crew is in no mood to explore the mysteries of the universe. The occupants doze in musty corridors, lost in their daily routines and overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the underwater world.

Our guide to the immobilised vehicle is the titular Harold Halibut, a cleaner and maintenance worker. Harold’s usual duties include mundane tasks such as mopping floors and replacing flickering light bulbs. However, our hero’s mind is on a much more important matter: one of the expedition’s top scientists suspects that there may be a way to restart the ship and leave the ocean planet. Harold decides to help her achieve this goal.

Game mechanics

The gameplay of Harold Halibut does not differ much from what we are used to from other adventure games. Looking at the world from the side, the player explores successive rooms of the sunken spaceship and interacts with members of its crew. The NPCs with whom we can engage in dialogue include ordinary passengers, the ship’s crew and the scientific staff. Although Harold’s action mainly takes place on board the immobilised ship, the game allows you to plunge into the depths of the alien ocean, which is made possible thanks to a peculiar crawler-finned submarine.

Technical issues

To create Harold Halibut, the German developers used the popular Unity 3D engine. All elements of the game’s environment – from small objects such as furniture and appliances, to the characters’ bodies and clothing, to entire corridors and rooms of the spaceship – were modelled, cut, assembled and painted in the authors’ workshop, and then transferred to the virtual world using photogrammetry technology. Harold Halibut download for free for PC cracked.

The puppets that represented the characters were made of a plastic substance that surrounded metal skeletons made of twisted wire. Miniature clothes and shoes were then sewn for them and elements of their equipment prepared. The locations were also created in reality, creating something like miniature sets, similar to doll’s houses. The models were then transferred into digital space using RealityCapture photogrammetry software.

Animation techniques

At the start of production, the game’s authors experimented with stop-motion animation techniques. The characters were to be represented by two-dimensional sprites that had recorded cycles of movement in eight directions. However, this approach would not allow the free use of dynamic lighting, dynamic camera and other visual effects, which ultimately determined the need for photogrammetry.