IN DEATH
In Death is an immersive roguelite shooter, designed and created for VR. Difficult and unforgiving, the only way to stay alive is to trust in your aim, speed and accuracy. A minimalistic concept made deeper through the medium of immersion.
I worked on the interaction of hands with things using concepts of cognitive science. Special attention went to the mechanics of weapons to facilitate a progressive sense of mastery of the object during the intense, fast paced, combat flow experience.
The design process was centered on the concept of embodied cognition. In the same way in which dancers imagine a full choreography by sketching movements, the weapons in In Death are designed to make the player mimic the poses and performance of an archetypical hero character. The design turn hand movements into skillful role-playing game while supporting fast paced action. Fast prototyping, intuition, user testing were instrumental in exploring the right affordances to achieve the fine balance between hands, props and imagination. The result is a game which is easy to pick up and hard to let go.
In Death was made in Iceland by Solfar in collaboration with visual effects studio RVX. Artwork is by Borkur Eiriksson.