The Objectives:
The project started as a shared concept between myself and Amirpour, based on the idea of how internal and external experiences of identity vary for every person. We wanted to explore this notion through Virtual Reality, creating an interactive platform for audiences to literally look through the eyes of people with different experiences from themselves, and hopefully gaining greater insight into and empathy for those experiences. Furthermore, we wanted to create unique methods of interaction utilizing emerging development in VR technology to realize this experience in a way that created a symbiotic relationship between narrative and technology, producing a wholly immersive and influential experience. We quickly recruited Hausman and Rengering to provide art and music, taking a wholistic approach to ensure creative synergy in all aspects of the project as we sought to explore these marginalized experiences.
My Contributions:
As the Narrative Designer and one of the initial co-creators of the project concept, I created the overall story concept for the experience as well as penning the script and providing documentation about the characters and overall world to guide our artist and composer in their creative process, as well as providing both of them with artistic direction. I was also responsible for casting the project, and I directed all of our recording sessions with voice actors Ashley “Ricky” Ricker and Sophia Moore. I created each of the characters and room concepts, including those prepared for potential future iterations.
Through Our Eyes is a VR experience exploring the diversity inherent in the human condition as players experience a day in the life of four friends from wildly different backgrounds, aided by eye tracking and other methods of interaction in the VR space. Players look through the eyes of Jean and Gert as they prepare for the group's quarterly “tune trade”. Players will gain insights into the identities of these characters, and see how even small and mundane daily experiences can be completely changed through different eyes. As they play each character’s version of the story, they gain new insights into their background and personality that helps them make more empathetic and understanding choices and achieve better endings. The game was a collaboration between myself, artist Reese Hausman, composer Branden Rengering, and producer/programmer Kaleb Amirpour. You can download it from its itch page here.
The Processes:
We created Through Our Eyes as part of a semester-long venture into small-group independent game development. First, we spent time concepting, creating thumbnail sketches, audio samples, narrative splices, and programming experiments. Once we narrowed down our game plan, we pitched it to a professor, who approved of our idea. From there, we used a Trello board to divvy up and keep track of tasks. We would have two prototype playtests following the completion of rooms or the implementation of a new feature. As our end-of-year deadline quickly approached, we created a realistic timeline and worked hard to meet those dates. We exhibited our work at a departmental exhibition, where we watched as our fellow students playtested our work on the Varjo headset.
