In November 2012, a natural gas pipeline explosion triggered a massive sinkhole that swallowed the small north Florida town of Cypress Knee.
Only a few survivors know what really happened.
None of them seem willing to talk about it.
That didn’t stop an ambitious playwright from crafting a ripped-from-the-headlines theatrical production full of weird Florida references and bizarre conjecture.
The play was called Knee Deep.
How does it relate to what really happened?
“It’s utter goddamned bullshit,” declared Jack Bellet, a journalist featured in the play. “But I paid to see it twice.”
In the months after the disaster, the sinkhole filled with water from Cypress Swamp and became a lake large enough to be seen from space. They call it Little Okee, inspired by the state’s largest lake, Okeechobee.
In May 2014, an investment group called the Golden Partnership broke ground on a new planned community called Cypress Knee, a series of residential villages, commercial strip malls, and play spaces designed to sprawl along the northern and eastern shores of the Little Okee.
Bellet, using proceeds from a rather lucrative court settlement with the Church of Us (about which he was sworn never to discuss), established a new Cypress Knee Notice newspaper. Now he’s the publisher and editor-in-chief of what has quickly become one of the Sunshine State’s most profitable community newspapers as tens of thousands of people – from young families to widowed retirees – swarmed to the town.
Now's your chance to create your own character and help shape the narrative for a new weird Florida noir adventure that evolves in real-time, picking up several years after Knee Deep left off! The text-based game is free to play, although supports of the associated Patreon are featured in news articles and could even have buildings and other memorable spots in town named after them.
As we developed Knee Deep for a broad range of platforms, we took great efforts to smartly design our interfaces to be as modular as possible. With the broad adoption of the Xbox or Xinput controller, we used that as our guiding metric when testing inputs.
When it came to revisiting our interfaces for VR support, it was a pleasant surprise how smoothly the standard gamepad still carried through to VR interactions. However, we recognized that our interfaces were not designed for touch interactions. After internal discussions, we decided that we'd adapt the touch wheels on Vive controllers to imitate the functions of a gamepad and maintain functionality across every platform. The left controller's touchpad would simulate the d-pad while the right touchpad could be used to simulate the x/y/a/b face buttons.
That didn't work as well as we would have liked. We heard that clearly from Vive users trying to play Knee Deep with their controllers. Yes, technically, it works - but it's not ideal or intuitive. And we don't want to falsely imply that our interfaces are designed for motion or touch controls.
We want to be transparent and clear. So we've removed mention of Vive controller support from our store page listing.
If you try to use these controls, the game will accept the inputs. We just don't want new users to have false expectations for Knee Deep and touch controls.
We have been thrilled with the response to the VR launch and hope everyone has a chance to experience Knee Deep's performance from eye-level. If you have any questions about this change, don't hesitate to reach out.
Join the cast in Knee Deep VR!
The shadowy three-act swamp noir adventure Knee Deep invites you to get up close and personal in the virtual reality experience!
Today, the game launches on Steam VR (with a 50 percent discount for new players!).
Now’s your chance to experience the indie theatrical adventure from Prologue Games as never before. Take in every detail of this cavernous stage as you take control of the camera to observe sets assemble and actors waiting patiently for their next cue. The best way to enjoy the theater is to be there and, with this new launch, you can take your place on stage next to Romana Teague, Jack Bellet, and K.C. Gaddis as they scramble to uncover this swampland conspiracy. Don't forget to take your time, soak in the ambiance, and enjoy being in the middle of the best sets and props off-off-off Broadway!
We've revisited the entire game to prepare the best VR experience possible. You may notice some differences in presentation from the standalone game, but all storylines are still available for you to uncover.
Knee Deep in Strange Florida No. 22
Knee Deep owes a lot of its inspiration to the inherent weirdness of the Sunshine State. Each week, we’re showcasing some of the unusual headlines from Florida:
Knee Deep owes a lot of its inspiration to the inherent weirdness of the Sunshine State. Each week, we’re showcasing some of the unusual headlines from Florida:
Knee Deep owes a lot of its inspiration to the inherent weirdness of the Sunshine State. Each week, we’re showcasing some of the unusual headlines from Florida:
Knee Deep owes a lot of its inspiration to the inherent weirdness of the Sunshine State. Each week, we’re showcasing some of the unusual headlines from Florida:
Knee Deep owes a lot of its inspiration to the inherent weirdness of the Sunshine State. Each week, we’re showcasing some of the unusual headlines from Florida:
DURHAM, N.C. - Why wait for a night at the theater?
You’ve got an open invitation any day, any time to experience the swamp noir mystery and mayhem of Knee Deep, a way-way-way-off Broadway show staged within a ridiculously massive rotating theater in stunning virtual reality.
In November 2016, Prologue Games proudly presents a full three-act experience for Steam VR and Oculus Rift. It’s not a tech demo. It’s not a quick-hit story where you’ve got no impact. It’s a fully voice acted, feature-length, quirky, choice-driven crime drama set in weird Florida with esoteric influences ranging from Twin Peaks to Jaws to Star Wars. Imagine David Lynch and Carl Hiaasen in colliding airboats smashing through a swamp performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Colin Dwan, CEO of Prologue Games, said Knee Deep is at its best when the physical surroundings drop away and the magical reality of this fantastic theater takes over.
“Beyond ‘theater in the round,’ VR brings you into every scene and line of dialogue as an active and engaged participant,” Dwan said. “We’re thrilled to transport our audience into the dramatic settings and characters of Knee Deep on these amazing platforms.”
Take turns with three major characters - oddball blogger Romana Teague, hard-boiled private investigator K.C. Gaddis, and downtrodden newspaper reporter Jack Bellet - as they delve into the dark secrets hiding in the murk of a forgotten north Florida tourist trap called Cypress Knee.
Your choices in conversations, reporting posts, and the occasional showbiz cult exams help shape the narrative of Knee Deep. The game’s lead writer/designer, Wes Platt, is a recovering Florida native with a background that includes more than a decade as a journalist with The St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) and The Herald-Sun of Durham, N.C.
“We’re long-time fans of theater and we work right next door to the Durham Performing Arts Center at the American Tobacco Campus,” Platt said. “We’re pleased that gamers who might never have seen a stage show get that chance with Knee Deep. And theater fans who’ve never gamed? We’re just as excited that Knee Deep will be their gateway experience.”
It all starts with a dead actor hanging from a tacky teepee tower. Get up close and personal to find out where the twisted trail leads when Knee Deep launches on VR!
See theater in a whole new way. You don’t even have to wear pants.
Knee Deep in Strange Florida No. 17
Knee Deep owes a lot of its inspiration to the inherent weirdness of the Sunshine State. Each week, we’re showcasing some of the unusual headlines from Florida:
