What is the point of this?

XRGAME DESIGNSOUND

What is the point of this? An interactive VR game.

“What is the point of this” is an Interactive VR game that can be experienced
within a VR headset. The game aims to talk about nihilistic and existential tropes by blending philosophy, art, absurdism and interaction within the novel realm of Virtual Reality. The game contains multiple rooms / levels and starts with an opening sequence that contains several metaphors and references to real art-works — for example, ‘The Existential Dreader’, a satire on Ronin’s ‘The Thinker.

This project was a culmination of my studies at the Royal College of Art, London in partnership with Meta and exhibited at the BBC Television Center for which I was awarded an MFA in Communication.

Timeline: 6 months

Role: Game Design, Prototyping, Sound Design, Development and VR

Tools: Unity, Blender, Logic Pro X

What is it about?

What is the Point of This?", is an interactive VR game exploring existentialism, absurdism, and personal reflection. Players navigate multiple rooms and are presented with the simple task of pressing a button, often absurd and seemingly purposeless, reflecting the existential struggle to find meaning in an indifferent universe. Drawing inspiration from philosophy, art (e.g., Kusama's Infinity Mirror Rooms), and metaphorical objects like CCTV cameras, the game evokes feelings of isolation, absurdity, and introspection. The minimalist design, non-linear narrative, and immersive sound aim to prompt self-reflection and existential questioning in players

AUDIENCE GOALS AND EMPATHY

I want to make the audience understand, even to some level, what existentialism is, what it can feel like and to contextualise life’s inherant uncertainties. The game follows a non-linear, non dialogue based narrative. At no point does the character come across other players, interact with any NPCs or even have dialogues. The only dialogues are the internal ones happening within the player as they experience my world.

Sound Design

Being a completely dialogue free, narrative free and almost instruction free game, the sound design was an extremely important consideration when it came to pushing the story forward. I created all the audio from scratch using Logic Pro. The music progresses from room to room, with instruments being added periodically. It also shifts from major tones to minor tones as the game progressively becomes more dark. The heavy use of distortion and eerie tones also adds to the effect. Sound is also a key part of immersion within VR and adds to the player being completely encapsulated in the world I've created.

Wireframing and process

Initial mockups of the game development process in Unity. I used low poly prefabs with no texture and laid everything out to understand how I wanted my levels to flow.

Why did I choose VR?

It allows for immersive and intimate connections between the audience and the virtual world.

VR is a fairly new and therefore novel technology that players are eager to play with and explore.

Objects and Metaphors

That show how people associate everyday normal objects around them to the feelings of existential dread. For example, the CCTV cameras that I’ve incorporated into most scenes are a metaphor for the feelings of constantly being watched. I have also played around with their scale and perspective which is amusing to experience in the VR headset.