For more, click here to read my master’s thesis paper.

Roles:
Designer, Developer

Software:
Unity, VS Code, Blender, Adobe PS

Timeline:
Aug 2022 — May 2023

Additional Context:
This was developed solo as my master’s thesis project

There’s an old writer’s adage that says, “Show. Don’t tell.” The adage encourages writers to make the most of their medium by having their work engage their readers’ imaginations. It asks the reader to do more interpretive work, engaging them more deeply in the story’s world. In an inherently immersive and interactive medium like VR, though, showing is no longer the limit. The audience now has the ability to act within and upon the work.

Don’t Show. Don’t Tell. is a VR horror project that focuses on an approach to media that isn’t shown to the player, that isn’t told to the player—that is done by the player. As the project’s title implies, that focus involves less emphasis on traditional approaches to horror and storytelling and a greater emphasis on bodily engagement in VR.

By exploring the relationships between user experience design, theories of human motivation, studies of horror enjoyment, and phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of situational spatiality, Don’t Show. Don’t Tell. seeks to create horror specifically out of how a player experiences VR, which it does in a series of brief, standalone vertical slices.