This experience emerged from the idea of solitude. Considering both
Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude and the way spaces between places can have placeness led me to understand solitude as a place marked by chosen, intentional loneliness. Such placed space becomes apparent in games like The Long Dark, where the vastness and the spectral presence of humans in their artifacts turns what would otherwise be in-between space into a place of “the forest” or “the ghost town” or “the wild.
Because of the practical limitations of having to rely upon visual cues for immersion, I focused on filling the space with objects that would suggest a long-term occupant whose grasp on physical reality has been eroded by solitude. In response to this erosion, the occupant tries to remind themselves of reality by manipulating it physically, but their mind starts to slip. Finding Solitude situates the user inside of a stone cave, with a campfire, woodpile, sleeping mat and various stone and wooden animal sculptures, along with the tools to make them, scattered about the cave. The smoke rises from the campfire and spreads across the ceiling. A waterfall rises across the entrance to the cave, flowing backward and obscuring a view of a frozen lake and several mountains.
Initially I thought of creating an empty cave, but after some research, I realized that An empty cave may feel lonely, but the time and effort implied by filling it with artifacts of activity-the statues, the figurines, the tools, the wood stack, the campfire, and the sleeping mat-would turn that loneliness into solitude. Someone, the user, has been there, expending their time and effort. The repetitiveness of the statues and the size of the wood stack imply the obsessiveness of this expenditure, suggesting the futility of effort which yields nothing for anyone outside of the cave, anyone aside from the user. While these serve as indicators of the way a mind in solitude starts to shift, the upside-down waterfall confirms that the user’s experiential reality of the world has collided with their physical reality. They are hallucinating. Logically, if the user entered the cave, they should be able to exit, but the waterfall covers there only exit and creates cognitive friction with such causal inferences. The user is made to believe that they cannot leave when, in fact, they can. In this way, all of these elements combine to create a sense of being present inside a mind filled with solitude, a reality which is neither the physical reality nor the experiential mind, but somewhere in between.
The initial view is almost banal, with a campfire, a wood stack, and a cave entrance covered by a waterfall. I wanted something to be slightly off about this view, so I inverted the flow of the waterfall. The placement of the campfire allows for the smoke cue discussed later, but it also makes sense practically. The fire’s smoke should mostly exit the cave and the light should ward off dangerous creatures. Hence, its placement implies the foresight of one who has been in the wilderness long enough to understand these functions, as well as the nature of the wilderness outside.
The initial view is almost banal, with a campfire, a wood stack, and a cave entrance covered by a waterfall. I wanted something to be slightly off about this view, so I inverted the flow of the waterfall. The placement of the campfire allows for the smoke cue discussed later, but it also makes sense practically. The fire’s smoke should mostly exit the cave and the light should ward off dangerous creatures. Hence, its placement implies the foresight of one who has been in the wilderness long enough to understand these functions, as well as the nature of the wilderness outside.
If the user turns left, the wood stack comes into view with an axe leaned up against it. The stack has an unreasonably large amount of wood, but does not necessarily suggest anything strange aside from the amount of time the individual has been there. It also implies, along with the unevenness of the walls and ceiling, that the cave exists within a larger natural context with plenty of available firewood, such as a hilly or mountainous forest. When the user turns completely to the left, a wolf head statue comes into view, and they are drawn to the back wall.
Similarly, if the user turns to the right, they start to see the statues, which guide them to turn all the way around to see the wall of various animal carvings
Tools lying on the floor near the statues bring the user’s view down, a movement that will guide them to the figurines and the sleeping mat if they turn left initially or toward the back wall if they turn right. The sleeping mat also implies the number of people who live in the cave: one.
A final, subtler cue to look at the statues comes from the smoke, which radiates toward the back of the cave. Both the waterfall and the smoke are constituted by large particles rather than lines. This both fit better with the style and helped make the two feel more like objects in the space by exaggerating their movement to compensate for the lack of sound and taste that often indicate the presence of such translucent substances.
Overall, I felt this experience did succeed in implying solitude, but there are many improvements that could be made. In terms immersion, sounds of the waterfall and the campfire would help. In the initial design, I also wanted the statues to growl when the user was not looking at them to add a bit more tension to the scene. The smoothness of the floor and the way the smoke blocks just disappear like bubbles popping also brings users out of the experience. Finally, using animal models designed for low-poly rather than adding a stone texture to models designed for life-like textures would improve the consistency of the aesthetic.
Overall, I felt this experience did succeed in implying solitude, but there are many improvements that could be made. In terms immersion, sounds of the waterfall and the campfire would help. In the initial design, I also wanted the statues to growl when the user was not looking at them to add a bit more tension to the scene. The smoothness of the floor and the way the smoke blocks just disappear like bubbles popping also brings users out of the experience. Finally, using animal models designed for low-poly rather than adding a stone texture to models designed for life-like textures would improve the consistency of the aesthetic.
Aside from these improvements, however, I am satisfied with the work. Rarely does an idea manifest as I initially intended it to because I have to bring out a concept without the ability to construct the world it exists in. With this project, however, the result was nearly the same as the initial inspiration, with the only limit being my skills with the technology. While that limitation did force me to cut many of the initial interactions I had planned, it also humbled me, making me appreciate the consideration and thoughtfulness that must go into creating a static environment. In particular, the medium allowed me to create exactly what I wanted, so I had to think much harder about the why, something that is often lost or modified when I fabricate tangible projects.