Amazing friends build Diablo-inspired RPG out of cardboard for isolated groom to control over Skype

News
By published

The player is controlling a GoPro-equipped machine that's moving through the stages

(Image credit: Reddit: DavidMReynolds)

The presumptive winners of 2020's 'Best Friends in the World' award built a fully-playable Diablo-inspired RPG from cardboard for their friend to control over Skype after his bachelor party was canceled.

To be clear, the game is constructed of real-life materials and runs using various mechanisms to allow the player to move around, interact with characters (his friends in costume), and fight. Different homes house different parts of the game, and everything is connected using different video and audio chat software.

We built a 90s Diablo style dungeon crawl out of cardboard and let our isolated buddy control it over skype from r/gaming

To help you fully appreciate this masterstroke of ingenuity, let me break down exactly what's going on here. First of all, most of what you see was happening live for the player, including all of the fights, which meant the two actors in each combat sequence had to frantically switch in and out of costumes.

Also to my amazement, the player is actually controlling his character's movement with a PS4 controller. There's a little car with a GoPro attached moving through the levels, and some technical wizardry connecting the DualShock's input from the player. At some point though, the controller was plugged into the PS4 to charge and lost connection to the rig, so the creators resorted to controlling the camera's movement at the player's command.

The whole game took the player about 3.5 hours to beat, and in that time he fights a goblin, a bandit, a centaur, and of course the big baddie itself, the evil knight Covid (who's forcing everyone to stay inside). There's a little town to explore with a pub and shops, and frankly I just can't get enough of it. Brilliant work, all around.

You can get the full "behind-the-scenes" breakdown from Reddit user DavidMReynolds here.

Here are the best RPGs you can play if your friends aren't cool enough to make you something like this.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.