We’re happy and proud to announce that idezo has been awarded a prototype grant from Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council for the development of Cancer Kill Squad. The Pro Helvetia Call for Interactive Media Projects supports development, production and distribution of video games, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) content, interactive comics and other forms of digital content demonstrating a high degree of interactivity.
We will use this funding to build a prototype of Cancer Kill Squad, focusing on bridging digital VFX, mobile development and traditional stop-motion film animation with the spirit of a graphic novel. The story of Cancer Kill Squad will be focused on abstracting the cancer chemotherapy patient journey.
Concept Development
The focus of Cancer Kill Squad will be a digital graphic novel that combines elements of mobile design and interactive comics. The application tells the story of cancer treatment from a patient centric viewpoint. As many people suffer from the effects of chemotheraphy and the dramatic change it can bring to their lives, Cancer Kill Squad seeks to support cancer patients through storytelling and reflection on their lives.
VFX Design
To combine a graphic novel feel with interactive elements, our focus is to use the Unity game development engine with video layers created with stop-motion animation techniques. The nature of Unity allows for video layers to be integrated with real-time VFX including elements. In this way the playfulness of stop-motion can be enhanced with advanced VFX, mixing the two mediums together. This techniques mimics the layering and parallax approached used in cartoon production (pioneered by Disney in the Art of Animation US patent US2201689A).
