If you're not familiar with ASMR, it stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and by definition is characterised by a static or tingling sensation on the skin. There are a vast amount of ASMR videos on YouTube, which relax listeners with both gentle and soothing sounds. Even video game companies have been getting in on the action recently - with Nintendo promoting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a unique "sights and sounds" clip not long ago.
Now, Australian-based developer SMG Studio – responsible for the wonderful co-op puzzle game Death Squared and other titles such as Super One More Jump – has hopped on the bandwagon by releasing a 25-minute ASMR video to help prepare "your mind and your body" for its latest Switch eShop release, OTTTD.
In case you're wondering, the title stands for "Over The Top Tower Defense" according to the developer and the entire video above explains much more about the game. If you don't have time to set aside 25 minutes to watch it – and find one of the 20 hidden eShop codes within the video – then here's a bit more about the game directly from the developer PR:
We describe the game as “Spaceballs meets Starship Troopers”. But anyone under 30 has no idea what Spaceballs is (their loss) and legal said we wouldn't be allowed to say that... so we fall back on “It’s an anything-goes TD game that doesn’t take itself seriously.
As for the story, here's what it is about:
The year is 2136. You work for HEROCORP™, the universe’s 4th largest private military force. Your job is to ‘preemptively defend’ the Earth against alien dimensions. As long as you complete the missions under budget and fill out the TPS reports in triplicate, everything goes smoothly. Dimensional travel is facilitated by HEROCORP™ rift technology, which is kinda like Stargate but we’re hesitant to throw that in the mix when we’ve already mentioned Starship Troopers. Is pre-emptively defending Earth ethical? Who cares when the money’s good!
The game includes 25 story missions, three difficulty levels, 12 tower types, seven heroes and multiple weapons, skills, abilities and armour options to choose from. If that wasn't enough, the Switch version even has some special Easter Eggs:
We know the Switch players take their game icons seriously, so we’ve set up Death Squared & OTTTD’s icons to form the first part of a triptych. We’ll be updating Super One More Jump and all our future games to form one continuous artwork.
And lastly, here's the proper trailer:
Have you downloaded this game from the Switch eShop yet? Do you listen to ASMR videos on the internet? Did you find one of the codes in the 25-minute video? Tell us in the comments below.
Comments (32)
Sigh, what has humanity come to?
Talk about poor marketing ideas. This makes Nintendo's marketing campaign for the Wii U look like the next best thing besides sliced bread...
I truly don't understand the whole ASMR thing. Most of the time, it just comes across as decidedly creepy, and skin crawl-inducing.
@ThanosReXXX There's unintentional ASMR (like Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting). It's not all intentionally done.
Mine was always triggered by watching people create art (hearing the pencil, pen, brush etc. while watching someone draw, paint, etc.). Of course, it didn't hurt that Bob Ross' calm, reassuring voice was as smooth as butter. He is the king for a reason.
I'm mad they wasted a whole watermelon just to promote this 2014 mobile game.
That is not the kind of asmr I am into.
@Iacobus I actually always liked Bob Ross' program, and I've watched quite a few episodes, but I never considered it to be ASMR. I used to draw and paint myself, so that was one of the main reasons I was interested in his program, and he certainly had a very calm and relaxing way of presenting, which also made it enjoyable to watch.
Of course, back then, the acronym ASMR wasn't even known (or at least not amongst the general public) and nowadays, it's just a buzz word for all kinds of YouTube idiots scratching their nails across all kinds of objects, or whispering idiotic stuff into a microphone.
.... did any of you guys actually noticed there is a e-shop download code for the game near the end of the video? Just saying...
@Shiryu
I did but the game doesn't look interesting enough even for free. I got a huge backlog going back to ps3, wii and right now I am playing Dragons Dogma and Warframe. So no time for this.
many thanks SMG Studio - i found and used one of the many hidden codes thanks for sharing your game this way - i think the best code was the morse code one.. i didnt get that one in time .. but that was a nice touch ps the code was C03104WN12B896LP for the morse code -.-. ----- ...-- .---- ----- ....- .-- -. .---- ..--- -... ---.. ----. -.... .-.. .--.
I was able to grab one of the free codes too...it was in webdings font, lol
Why is everyone into ASMR now? I remember when it was an ironic joke
@Shiryu Near the start too. I randomly jumped to like 3:30 when I loaded up the video and just stumbled across the one there and used it. A friend of mine grabbed one of the other ones near the end.
@PBandSmelly
It does help some people sleep like white noise and porn of course. When you think about those sounds of the ocean etc albums have been around since cassette tapes, it just wasn't called asmr.
Neat that so many people here got a code. Great stuff.
@ThanosReXXX it doesn't help that I could hear her lips and tongue smacking every word she says. It is pretty unnerving. I watched about 50 seconds to a minute. That was all I could take,lol
@Shiryu but does it actually work?
Nope... managed all of two seconds... I officially hate ASMR.... it makes me feel like I want to peel my own skin off 😬😬. You could get her mouth noises between words, sorry but that’s like noisy eating.... can’t cope... 🥴🥴
This is coming off as a really obnoxious promotion with everyone trying to get a code that only a few very dedicated people can use. Doesn't help how these videos are very annoying for some.
Tried it on android got bored after 10-15 mins luckily i could refund it
Ash here from SMG. The video is a joke/bit of fun as it's meant to counter the OTT nature of the game.
We're always trying new things all the time as Michael Bay asked for too much $ to shoot the video we had in mind.
PSA: All the footage was FREE stock footage so no food wasted in the making of it.
The only Tower Defense games I liked were Dungeon Defenders, Sanctum and their sequels. Mixing Tower Defense with in-the thick-of-it shooter mechanics is the best. Can we get some of those on Switch, please?
This video is plain brilliant ;-DDDD
Tried spotting all the ones I could and finally the 17th one I tried worked.
Thanks for the fun promo and the free code @SMGstudio !
ASMR usually irritates me. However having the icons form a continuous picture is a very cool idea!
@whanvee Yeah, me too.
@EasyDaRon Well, that depends on what you like, and I don't like it at all. To me, it's just annoying and as I mentioned before, some of these ASMR YouTubers are even bordering on creepy, so I don't find it to be relaxing at all.
It's just the new fad of the decade, that now gets a couple of moments in the spotlights. It'll be over in a couple of years, if even that long, and then it'll go back to being niche again.
@EasyDaRon It's not just personal dislike, I can observe and discuss this quite objectively as well. I do sales & marketing for a living, and I can recognize trends and fads pretty easily. (not saying this to beat my chest, just adding it to clarify where my point of view is coming from)
The concept of ASMR has always been there, but only since recent years, perhaps even less, has it become this visible and present, meaning that there's now an upsurge of it in mainstream and social media, which will inevitably also go down again.
And it will, in about 2 to 3 years max, most of these channels will have disappeared from YouTube and main stream media won't pay any attention to it anymore either.
It's just how these things go. In today's world, everyone needs the new feel good thingy yesterday, so people are constantly moving on. Some people will remain interested, so some channels will keep catering to this group, but that is the very definition of becoming niche, which I already mentioned is the direction that this is going, in my previous comment.
@SMGstudio I thought it was a brilliant video and promotion! Tried a few codes and was too late but enjoyed the video thoroughly. The narrator was hilarious!
@n0body thanks!
@ThanosReXXX
I’m pretty sure that as long as the top ASMR videos on youtube are underage trailer park girls mimicking fellatio with lollipops and binaural microphones, it won’t be going anywhere soon.
@robr Yeah... there's that, but at some point, all the kids and lonely singles will want to move on to actual adult entertainment...
@EasyDaRon I don't have to analyze anything to know that listening to/watching ASMR videos is and will always be, niche. Period.
Listening to something that relaxes you, like music or whatever, is something completely different from someone scratching a brush near a microphone.
@EasyDaRon Obviously, I was overexaggerating the example, to poke a bit of fun at it. And hundreds of thousands of subscribers/listeners, although very good, isn't exactly stellar, if you look at the top 50 or even top 100 of popular YouTube channels, and no matter which way you want to see it, they DO cater to a specific audience, and that's most definitely not all of us.
You can also clearly see that here, seeing as I'm not the only one commenting negatively on this.
But besides all that, it's okay if not all of us like the same things, so we don't have to argue this to death. You apparently like it, and that's perfectly fine, but I don't like it, and I don't see it taking off anymore than it does now, and usually, that means that the growth of the phenomenon has either stopped and will level off, or will dip back down again. I guess time will tell.
On a side note: as you may have noticed, one of the developers has already entered the comments section to explain that they used ASMR as a joke, so even they are making fun of it. So, the whole point of debating it, already seems kind of moot.
Tap here to load 32 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...