The video game Street Uni X was created by Daffodil, who lives in East Vancouver and rides a unicycle. The principle of the video game is to step into the shoes of a professional unicyclist, in the form of an avatar, to perform feats and acrobatics in certain locations in Vancouver.
Players in the region will also be able to recognize the skateboard park near the rails. SkyTrainas well as the mountains and coastline of Greater Vancouver.
The game is influenced by skateboarding, snowboarding and board games. BMX
says Daffodil. In the same way, the unicycle fits into this context.
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Daffodil comes from East Vancouver and created the video game Street Uni X, which features extreme sports games on a unicycle.
Photo : - / Maurice Katz
People often treat unicycling like it’s a joke or like it’s made for clowns
they add. But it’s cool, it’s fun, it’s expressive.
But for Daffodil, the game pays homage to the city’s punk communities.
Punk scenes underground are immersed in the liberation of all, it has a certain importance for me and I try to integrate that into my work.
Daffodil reports having skateboarded for a long time before starting unicycling in 2018. That year, they attended a professional unicycling convention in South Korea.
I met other snowboarders there that I saw online […] and who published videos that really inspired me
she says. It kind of fueled an obsession to create the game.
Daffodil began working on the project full-time in 2022 and also received help from Vancouver punk musicians, friends who designed the 3D animations, and donors.
They say it’s a privilege to make people they meet on the streets of Vancouver or members of the community smile.
I want to stay true to myself
says Daffodil.
Video game development by cooperatives
Street Uni X was financed by Weird Ghostsa company that supports underrepresented creators, and published by Gamma Spacea non-profit organization in Toronto.
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Daffodil’s main means of transportation is the unicycle. They used to frequent skateboard parks in East Vancouver.
Photo : - / Maurice Katz
Gamma Space wants to change the way video games are produced, given waves of mass layoffs in the industry.
Internationally, 6,000 people lost their jobs in the video games industry last January alone.
Henry Faber, co-founder of Gamma Spaceaffirms that the cooperative intends to support developers, in order to help them create video games in a more sustainable way.
According to Mr. Faber, the cooperative model, with the pooling of resources and contributions, gives creators the chance to realize themselves, even in more difficult times for the industry.
With information from Akshay Kulkarni
