How to get the most from KO-CHA!
You can shoot your boss with a splurge gun, but KO-CHA! can be so much more. It is a platform for you to have spontaneous skirmishes in your neighbourhood and invent your own games. To help with both of these I have jotted down a few suggestions you might want to consider.
Local Skirmishes
You don’t need the world playing KO-CHA! to have satisfying encounters in your street. You just need to snipe a few local friends who you think would relish a bit of photo combat. The more friends you ko-cha the more will come back at you. With a bit of luck they will ko-cha their friends too and, who knows, soon someone on your regular commute will have your alias come up on their Target Select and then it’s game on - stranger danger KO-CHA! style.
Multiplayer Game Tips
I have provided a few suggestions for games in the app menu as well as in other blogs on this website, but if you are keen to invent some of your own here are a few things you might want to consider to enhance the experience.
Location – Choose your playspace according to the number of players you have and the game you want to play. If it is a fast paced game with lots of players, woods and park gardens are ideal, but so too are scraps of land between buildings, anywhere that has places to hide and blind spots to run around to get behind your opponents. For sneaking, tactical games with only a few players you want more compact cover: hedge mazes are good but packed car parks are even better as long as you take the right safety precautions. Museums, art galleries and supermarkets also have the added challenge of maintaining norms of behaviour that conceal what you are doing.
Wherever you choose, don’t forget to make sure you have good phone reception at the location before organizing a meet.
Threat – Essential to making a great game, you need a reason for your team to want to win badly. Introducing a consequence to winning or losing the stakes. Whether it is a prize or forfeit, the more hardcore the consequence the greater the intensity of the experience. Threat can also come from the circumstances in which you play. Sometimes keeping it concealed that you are playing a game at all is itself all the threat you need.
Enable players to shoot each other in the back - For everyday KO-CHA! your phone is ample for most of what you will want to do. The app works on face detection, so you can ambush and skirmish with oncoming foe to your heart’s content. In full scale live games however, you will at some point want to ko-cha someone from behind. Battle, after all, is about gaining advantage, getting the drop on your opponent when they don’t expect it. At the very least you want to have some means of ko-charring them when they are running away. The question is: how to achieve this with software that is based on face detection?
The answer is actually very simple. You can wear a t-shirt with a face printed on it that the software detects. Any celebrity t-shirt will do, as long as the face is large enough. Drag out your old Bob Marley shirt, turn it backwards and you’re good to go. No bystanders will guess what you’re up to. You can literally run around a crowded space with a giant target on your back without looking out of place.
If you are shopping to buy a t-shirt for this purpose, I would recommend choosing one where the printed face is at least as large as your own. You can check that KO-CHA! face detection will work on the face before purchase. If you are shopping online via your phone take a screenshot of the shirt you are considering and then use the KO-CHA! feature of shooting from your phone’s photo roll (top left icon on the viewfinder) to check. If you are shopping on the high street take a photo of the garment and apply the same method. When doing this, be aware that some images where the t-shirt face is partially side-on or iconised may only sporadically work in real life. This is because the face is borderline detectable as a still image. When this is translated in real life onto a t-shirt the rippling of the garment may cause the face detection to not pick it up very well. To be certain use a face that is directed straight on and is not cast in too much shadow. You won’t have a problem if the features are clearly defined.
If splashing out isn’t your thing, or you are organising a large game with lots of players, print faces onto A4 paper and pin it to clothing. You can print off different photos to differentiate between teams. Print additional faces to go on player’s chests as well if you like. It is really useful in games where new players keep forgetting that they are not allowed to conceal their face with their phone. A face on the chest can provide an alternate target to other players.
Theming – If you have tried playing conventional paintball games with KO-CHA! and feel it lacks something – that something is most likely theming. When you play paintball you are not wearing your street clothes; you are wearing a mask and camouflage and carrying a gun that has a certain weight. These all combine to create atmosphere. The fact you don’t need any of these with KO-CHA! means you can play anywhere anytime, but you can also lose something from the experience if you forget to be creative in the ways you frame your games. If you decide to play in a museum or art gallery dress up for it, be Agent 42 or the glamorous art thief and make it a prerequisite for taking part.
Theming can also be used to inspire fresh game invention. In my experience the best games have often sprung from a friend’s obsession with a movie. By simply recreating a favourite scene in game form it is amazing how dramatic plot and stage can inform team sizes, location and game mechanics you would otherwise never have thought of. I think a key principle with working with this technique is to absolutely avoid cliches and norms of genre. Star Wars tropes are fun when you’re six, but luring adults to play requires a bit more carrot.
Respawning - The point of including a respawning mechanic in your game is to prevent players from ko-charring each other back and forth, negating the win of the player who shot first. It also sucks to be out of the game after one hit, so respawning is a great alternative.
Location respawning: This is usually done at specific predetermined locations, usually on the rear boundary of a team’s field of play, but not always. In games where there is no clear direction of play it is useful to clearly define the boundaries of the game and multiple spawn sites which players can use to respawn from. Here a good technique is for players to use exits to the building or park garden for respawning. In order to respawn a player must leave the game by one exit and rejoin the fight through a different exit to respawn. Their choice of re-entry point can be used for strategy and the time it takes to re-enter can be used either to rest or gain advantage if you choose to sprint it.
Timed respawning: In almost all cases of timed respawning the ko-charred player can neither shoot or be shot by other players while they are waiting to respawn. They must also either stay where they are or move to nearby cover to prevent from being ko-charred again immediately.
Scoring - Before each game remember to zero your scores. This is done by simultaneously pressing and holding the Kill and Hit icons on your KO-CHA! viewfinder. Don’t be concerned about losing any of your background score here. All live game scores are included in your overall score and cannot be wiped.
When choosing the method that will decide who wins your game, remember that this is only limited by your imagination. Here are a few suggestions, but this is not an exhaustive list:
Highest Kill score wins.
First player to achieve a predetermined Kill score wins.
Players leave the game when their Hit score reaches a determined number. Last team/player standing wins.
Lowest time to complete tasks wins, utilising KO-CHA! kills to influence that time (as in Geodash in Game Suggestions)
Winner is determined by the difference between their Kill and Hit scores at the end of a predetermined time (e.g. a player with 10 Kills and 5 Hits would have a final score of 5 at the end of the game. This player would lose against a player who had 7 Kills and 1 hit, final score 6).
Play Hardcore – get up early and stake out your friend’s house. Sleep out in the woods in different camps and make night raids. Play safe, but play hard. It all comes down to the willingness to imagine and experience a little type 2 fun.
For more ideas please visit the Game Suggestions page within the KO-CHA! app menu. When you come up with games of your own please send details with photos of you playing via our ‘playkocha’ social media channels or to feedback@headshotmofo.com. The best will be included in our Game Suggestions and be rewarded with in-app status benefits.
Peace and happy hunting,