About the content of KO-CHA!
KO-CHA! is a non-violent game with a violent narrative. We fight with Splurge Guns and Waterbombs but use the words Kill and Headshot with impunity. We do this because we abhor violence but see the benefits of repurposing violent themes in fiction to enhance fun. If you doubt the logic of this, consider what Fortnite or Call of Duty would be like if the point of the game was to run around poking people shouting “You’re It!”.
Why then do we not have people’s heads getting shot off in a splash of gore? The truth is that we wanted to, but knew the risk of KO-CHA! being misused for bullying or intimidation was just too great.
Similar concerns were also how our crowskins came to be. Initially we intended users to be able to create their own crowscreen with a speech bubble they could fill with whatever they liked, but given that combating strangers is an option in the game, we didn’t want the rare deviant utilising it to send unwanted d!@k pics or messaged abuse. The best way to mitigate this was to limit crowscreen content to a shared face - and fill the rest of the screen with a crowskin. The upshot: Chris Hawtin is now with us, his artwork is storming the ramparts, so I guess we owe a lot to d!@k pics.
On Crowskins, you may have noticed that they are mostly clothed head to toe, or heavily tattooed. This is to enable most crowskins to work (somewhat) with all skin tones. This unfortunately removed naked muscles and cleavages from our pallet, but on the flip side, now everyone save the strictest conservatives can play. This may have been somewhat ruined when we decided to also post your face on all crowskins regardless of gender, but that was a temptation we could not pass up. And who, after all, are we to decide. My mum may prefer herself in a muscle vest. Whether or not she chooses to try the new look out on her friends is up to her. As for my good friend Matt, he makes a gorgeous Rosetta.
The thing I think I agonised about the most was the throwing KO-CHA! sounds and whether we should record separate sounds for different genders and give people a choice between a male or female voice for each of the thrown weapons. We decided not to go for this for now because it would require you to state a preference and this was against HeadShotMofo’s decision to gather as little personal information as necessary from our users. We chose instead to use different voices for different weapons and wait to hear from you whether you think it is jarring. If you have opinions either way, or any other feedback on KO-CHA! please send your comments to feedback@headshotmofo.com.
Peace and Happy Hunting,