Research Games

Phenomenology

A virtual reality game directed by Richard Lemarchand, and created in collaboration with Jivitesh Dhaliwal, Raymond Sheng Liao, Atley Loughridge, Jung-Ho Sohn, Stephanie Henderson, Malone Lumarda, Ryan Andersen, the MINmax group at the USC Game Innovation Lab, and the Jaunt Cinematic Virtual Reality Lab. Designed and built around music composed by Jacques Brautbar and Prashanth Srinivas.

The Meadow

A virtual reality art game by USC’s Game Innovation Lab.

Using techniques from theater and installation art to help bridge the transition from consensual reality to the virtual world more gracefully and gradually than is usual, the piece uses “experiential” digital gameplay, environmental narrative, sound design and gaze control to create an encounter between the player and the inhabitants of a colorful and mysterious meadow in a forest clearing. The piece is site-specific, and uses a sequence of nested and set-dressed tents to create thresholds across which the audience is guided. Sitting on the ground amid a designed tactile environment, the audience-player dons an Oculus DK2 headset, the final gateway to the world of wonder and fright that lies beyond…