One of the things I admire the most about video games is the interactive and narrative possibility. Audiences can personally live through and have control over what happens.

The core ‘feeling’ of my RISD degree project is the feeling of mind fog- a numb, hazy jumble of thoughts. You exist in this void of a mindspace, filled with subtle static instead of true black.

The idea was centered around you finding these memories, safe spaces, imaginary worlds, with small wisps to guide you, to recover your shape and therefore yourself.

These hidden spaces randomly spawned around you, revealed when you walk near, and disappeared when you left. Players would each have their own personal experience of what spaces they got to visit.

I added a corruption mechanic where if you wandered alone too long, you gradually began to distort and lose your shape. If you couldn’t find any more of these spaces, you’d lose your shape, curl up, and become overwhelmed by the darkness.

But one other point to visit these spaces was to visit these wisps- other presences in your head that represent the relationships in your life, who support you and remind you that you have more than one chance to get up and try again.

I feel that I am very much a kaleidoscope of the people close to me- their influences become layers that transform and inform who I am.