<aside> 🌍 The Essential Experience: Providing the experience of immersion as a tool for physical and emotional regulation through effective sound design and visuals.

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The immersive approach addresses two basic human needs: the desire for participation and the joy of play. People want to have an influence on their surroundings. By taking an active role, they are enabled to have a much stronger experience within the event.

How to create immersion?

Immersion by definition is “deep mental involvement in something.” I believe that the best way for us to achieve this in our design is to use our research on sense and stimulation, and the psychology of music and sound design (from phase two) to create a multi-sensory game experience. If we can stimulate a player through the use of sound, visuals and motion, we can also stimulate their minds and evoke feelings in them.

I have also found an article, published by Forbes and informed by writers, game designers, immersive theatre producers and other creators and it asks them this question: “What do you think is the secret to creating an immersive experience or world?”.

Here were the tips given:

  1. Use Details To Make Your World Feel Big And Alive. This means thinking critically about every features of the experience, from the features presented to the player, the interaction, the scale of the space around them and the suggestion of a greater world beyond that space. For the player to feel truly immerse, all of these details need to be harmonious. The idea of being in another world has to be solid.
  2. Be Clear About Your Expectations From The Audience. Consider what you are asking of the player when they enter this world. Who are they, how do they think and what are they bringing into the space? Give them something to do and that action will tell them who they are.
  3. Provide A Sense Of Status. Let them know that they have a role to feel, no matter how big or small.
  4. Use Limitations To Your Advantage. Think about the unusual characteristics surrounding your world, then devise a way to best utilise these atypical circumstances.
  5. Let The Audience Make Decisions. Be generous with the amount of agency you give the player. What humans want more is to be present and experience their true self. Let go of traditional narrative and experiment with emergent storytelling.
  6. Create A Space That People Can Project Themselves Into. Put your audience at the centre of the work, and think about it from their user perspective. If the audience is made the protagonist, they will see the most meaning and relevance for themselves. Allow them to make their own interpretations.

“If the player's self isn't imported into the world, it's all paper thin. They have to project themselves into it in some way. They need to hear their breath in order for it to be alive.”

Visual Design

The visit to the LUX Exhibition as well as my research into sensory rooms and technologies has supported my ideation into the visual experience that I want to create for our game.