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Penrose Station: an exploration of presence, immersion, player identity, and the unsilent protagonist

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Penrose Station: an exploration of presence, immersion, player identity, and the unsilent protagonist

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Content PENROSE STATION
An exploration of presence, immersion, player identity, and the unsilent protagonist
by
Kathryn Yu
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
(INTERACTIVE MEDIA)
May 2022
Copyright © 2022 Kathryn Yu
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my advisors Professor Martzi Campos, Professor Richard
Lemarchand, and Yelena Rachitsky, for their support throughout this process, as well as Professor
Laird Malamed for all his great feedback..
Many thanks go to the team behind Penrose Station: Jimi Stine, Seleny Xie, Chaoran
Huang, Nathan Fairchild, Feiyu (Alan) Chang, Celine Tang, and Yujia Shan. I am also honored to
work with our cast of voice actors: Sakura Nakahara, Ursula Marcum, Ashely Biski, Mikki
Hernandez, and Ezra J. Wayne. Special recognition also goes to casting and voice director Abby
Sherlock; thank you so much for lending your talents to this project.
Thank you to the readers of the early versions of my script and thesis paper: Dr. Yelena
“Elaine” Blank, Will Cherry, Jordan Chlapecka, Laura E. Hall, Laura Hess, Patrick McLean, Kellian
Adams Pletcher, and Blake Weil. I am grateful to Buzz Andersen for our conversations about AI, to
Andy Isadora Crocker for her perspective on casting as a part of the design process, and to
Maureen McHugh for listening to my original idea for this game. Thanks also go to Dooley
Murphy, Kent Bye, and Jörg Littel for letting me interview them about their experiences in playing
and making virtual reality games. Many thanks also go out to all the friends who playtested this
game. And a big thank you goes out to my fellow Interactive Media MFA class of 2022
colleagues for all of their advice and encouragement throughout the years.
I want to thank my parents, Margaret and Terry Yu, for their unconditional love and
support. And I especially want to thank my husband Daniel Budiac for being my number one
cheerleader.
This project would not have been possible without all of you.
i i
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ii
List of Figures v
Abstract vi
Chapter 1: Overview 1
1.1 About the Project 1
1.2 Player Demographics/Psychographics 2
1.3 Thesis Question 3
Chapter 2: Experience and Design Goals 4
2.1 Tactile/Mechanical Tasks 4
2.2 Environmental Storytelling 5
2.3 Embodied Presence 6
2.4 Impactful Narrative 6
Chapter 3: Prior Art 8
3.1 Gone Home 8
3.2 Tacoma and Sleep No More 9
3.3 Escape Rooms 13
3.4 The Room VR: A Dark Matter 15
3.5 Wolves in the Walls 17
Chapter 4: Immersion and Presence in VR 20
4.1 Distinctions Between Immersion and Presence 20
4.2 From Suspension of Disbelief to Presence 22
4.3 Photorealism and Believability 23
4.4 Place Illusion and Plausibility Illusion 24
Chapter 5: Casting the Player 26
5.1 Definitions and Usage 26
5.2 Social Scaffolding 28
5.3 Scripting the Interactor 29
5.4 The Murphy Dynamic Model of Participant Positioning in VR 30
Chapter 6: The Unsilent Protagonist 33
6.1 In-World Rationales for an Unsilent Protagonist 33
6.2 Effectiveness 34
6.3 Voice Acting and Vulnerability 36
iv
Conclusion 39
Bibliography 40
iv
List of Figures
1 Gone Home 8
2 Sleep No More 10
3 Tacoma 11
4 The Edison Escape Room at Palace Games in San Francisco, CA 13
5 The Room VR: A Dark Matter 15
6 Wolves in the Walls 17
7 OjO Pittsburgh 27
8 A Dynamic Model of Participant Positioning in VR 30
9 Half-Life: Alyx 36
v
Abstract
In this paper, I will discuss my virtual reality game Penrose Station. First, I will describe its
overall structure, intended player demographic, and experience goals. Then I will elaborate on its
four design pillars: tactile and mechanical tasks, environmental storytelling, embodied presence,
and impactful narrative. I will also compare Penrose Station to related works in similar genres
such as walking simulators, immersive theatre, escape rooms, virtual reality games, and other
virtual reality experiences. I will also explore the elements of building presence and immersion
when it comes to the design of virtual environments as well as how a game (or other kinds of
interactive media) can communicate the player’s intended role to them. Lastly, I will discuss how a
player might perceive their identity in an immersive experience, particularly as it relates to
first-person VR games and the usage of voiceover for a player character who speaks aloud.
vi
Chapter 1: Overview
1.1 About the Project
Penrose Station is a single-player, narratively-driven virtual reality (VR) mystery game with
light puzzle-solving, set in a science fiction future. The story revolves around a love triangle
between two humans and an AI, with one person (Parker) experiencing intimate partner
violence/emotional abuse and an artificial intelligence agent (DANNI) who tries to save them.
(Please note: multiple plot spoilers follow.)
In Penrose Station, the player is a nameless repair technician during an ordinary day at
work. The player is informed that they’ve been rerouted to make a service call at a faraway
deep-sea research station. However, upon arrival at the station, the ship’s computer informs them
that the station is running on emergency backup power mode. There are no lifeforms found
aboard Penrose Station and nobody answers when the player tries to call. The player enters the
darkened, abandoned ship and successfully turns on the lights. Restoring the lights also opens
the control room doors. However, once the player enters the control room, the doors lock behind
them and they become trapped.
Inside the control room, many of the consoles appear to have been tampered with and
there is evidence that some sort of incident has occurred. The environment contains an
overturned chair, objects strewn on the ground, and other signs of disarray. A nearby display
informs the player that a number of the station’s core systems are offline. The player must solve a
different puzzle to fix each system; these puzzles are presented in a linear order and progress
the game’s narrative.
After the first puzzle is solved, the player hears an audio recording of two characters
arguing where one accuses the other of murder, without a clear context or explanation. Each time
the player solves a puzzle, another audio recording is restored from the ship’s memory and
1
played back for the player. These audio recordings start to form a more complete picture of what
happened aboard the ship between Parker and DANNI and why Penrose Station is now
abandoned. After the final system is repaired by the player, the AI character — DANNI — is
restored; they confront the player. Simultaneously, the player discovers that DANNI is
malfunctioning and is given a choice: either to save DANNI’s consciousness or let them die. The
player is given approximately 20 seconds to make this choice about DANNI’s fate. This choice
also constitutes the end of the game.
The Penrose Station experience mashes up elements of walking simulators, escape
rooms, dystopian science fiction, and Shakespearean tragedies. The game also takes inspiration
from tactile and mechanical puzzles used in real-life escape rooms. It also leverages techniques
from environmental storytelling in first-person walking simulators. Through the use of immersive
technology and its first-person perspective, it also relies upon “storyliving” techniques “where
[the player is] inside a world making meaningful choices that drive the narrative forward”
(Lucasfilm Ltd., 2020) to create presence and immersion. And it draws upon a long tradition of
impactful and emotional narratives across all mediums.
1.2 Player Demographics/Psychographics
This game is for people who enjoy science fiction mysteries, dramatic narratives,
environmental storytelling, lightweight puzzle mechanics, and immersive stories which
interrogate ethically complex situations. Players of Penrose Station will discover the nature of a
crime and the perpetrator’s identity. They will ideally feel conflicted about whether or not the act
was ethical while experiencing a range of complex emotions: sadness, anger, helplessness,
remorse, and understanding/insight.
2
Why this audience? An Oculus VR Gamer Segmentation Study by Sophiya Shahla and
Caitlin Bigham recently found that the category of “Story Seekers” is estimated to be the largest
segment of the US gaming market at 27.7 million people (23%) compared to “Dedicated Gamers”
(18%) and “Play-to-Win Gamers” (11%). (2020) So with this project, I wanted to create a VR puzzle
experience that has a strong and meaningful story in order to appeal to the unmet needs of this
segment of gamers: the “Story Seekers” who “play games to escape and immerse themselves in
a different world” and who want “content that supports robust narrative and adventure offerings.”
(Shahla and Bigham, 2020).
1.3 Thesis Question
Through my work on this project, I hope to explore the building blocks of presence and
immersion as they relate to interactive, 360-degree virtual environments (experienced through a
headset) and how player interaction with a virtual environment strengthens both presence and
immersion. I also explore the nuances in how a game can communicate an assumed role to the
player, as well as what the player assumes their identity to be. And I will explore the
player-as-player-character and player-as-self boundary and how that boundary is affected by the
use of voiceover as spoken by the player character.
3
Chapter 2: Experience and Design Goals
2.1 Tactile/Mechanical Tasks
The game is inspired by real-life escape rooms and physical puzzle mechanics to take
advantage of VR affordances; part of the playfulness and joy of simply being “present” in virtual
reality is around the player interacting with the environment and having the environment respond
accordingly. Additionally, each time the player solves a puzzle through tactile tasks, the game
unlocks an audio fragment in the ship’s memory. These recordings then move the story forward.
The solving-listening cycle provides both a reward for the player’s most recent actions and an
incentive to continue playing.
Penrose Station attempts to engage the player in a natural, intuitive way through tactile
tasks that rely upon direct manipulation of objects in VR. The design of the experience builds
upon existing mental models of objects commonly found in the real world (such as levers,
buttons, switches, card readers, and more) while providing haptic feedback to the player after an
action. The game mechanics are similar to the affordances and gestural movements that are a
key component in VR experiences like The Room VR: A Dark Matter, Vader Immortal, and Red
Matter.
During the development process, I observed that even a simple interaction in a virtual
environment held a player’s attention. Players responded positively to the sheer novelty of using
a simple virtual toy, particularly if they did not have access to a VR headset at home. I found that
even a simple cube that players could pick up and throw up into the air was interesting enough to
keep them playing for longer than anticipated during early playtests of Penrose Station.
4
2.2 Environmental Storytelling
The game experience relies heavily upon environmental storytelling, conveying
information about the story world and characters without the need to use explicit language
whenever possible. This design approach is similar to a walking simulator (see Chapter 3). The
entire game is experienced alone, without any visible characters or characters. Thus, the
environments also need to convey information about this particular society, each character’s
place in society, character relationships, and more.
Through the course of the game, the player comes across evidence in the control room of
the station’s previous occupants. For example, the documents and objects include a photograph
of Cameron and Parker, scientific papers, a candy bar, a note from one character written to
another, and more. These objects give the impression of the space having been previously
inhabited by real people, while not necessarily aiming for a strict reproduction of the physical
world.
The player also encounters retro-futuristic technology in the game whose aesthetics are
reminiscent of electronics used in the 1980s and 1990s. They use fonts similar to those found on
digital clock radios and in NASA’s “worm” logo from the 1950s. Modern technology circa the
2000s and later is not present in the game. Objects have scratches and scuffs. The look and feel
of the environment mirrors objects, logos, and places that the player may have encountered
elsewhere in real life as a frame of reference. Posters and other items in the environment also
hint at a cold, unforgiving, technologically-sophisticated future, one that is lonely and isolating,
but also prioritizes science and duty to one’s “country.” These values are also later reflected in
the overarching narrative for the piece as well as some of Parker and DANNI’s dialog.
5
2.3 Embodied Presence
In Penrose Station, the player is able to move around with six degrees of freedom in a
realistic retro-future environment. The design of Penrose Station leverages one of the primary
affordances of VR to transport players to another time or place, be it imaginary or real. (See
Chapter 4 for additional discussion of presence.) However, the precise world and environment
that the game takes place in would be difficult to reconstruct in a physical themed setting, such
as a real-life escape room, although the tactile/mechanical tasks being presented to the player
still hopefully remain believable in the story world.
One of the goals of Penrose Station is to create an experience where taking actions in
virtual reality should feel direct, physical, and impactful and help the player lean into their role in
the story. This is strongly related to the goal behind the creation of tactile and mechanical tasks
within the game discussed earlier in Section 2.1. As Jason Jerald observes, “the more a user
physically interacts with a virtual world using his own body in intuitive ways, the more that user
feels engaged and present in that virtual world.” (2016, p. 93, italics mine).
2.4 Impactful Narrative
Penrose Station's narrative draws upon a rich tradition of theatrical and cinematic
storytelling, particularly in the characters of DANNI, Parker, and Cameron, and the implied love
triangle between the three. I also wanted to introduce a murder and a potential murderer early on
in the story, to build suspense. It should be evident to the player from the start that a murder has
occurred but the "why" and "how" are unclear; part of their goal is to figure out what happened
and why it happened.
6
The character of DANNI is also inspired by the usage of sentient artificial intelligence
characters from films such as HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. DANNI's personality and motives
are also aligned with Shakespearean anti-heroes like Othello or Hamlet. DANNI is a character
who is very eager to learn more about humans and emotions, but can sometimes be a little
intrusive or prying. This character is a bit emotionally immature but also lacks nuance in their
worldview, particularly regarding what’s morally right and morally wrong.
The project can also be viewed as an homage to the notion of a tragic love triangle as
told in Romeo and Juliet and countless other works of fiction. One of the characters, Parker,
directly references a different love triangle involving the character of Jay Gatsby from The Great
Gatsby. Unfortunately, another character in Penrose Station, DANNI, seemingly fails to learn the
moral of The Great Gatsby.
7
Chapter 3: Prior Art
I will next compare this project to walking simulators like Gone Home and Tacoma in
terms of their interaction design, narrative, and environmental storytelling. I will also contrast
Penrose Station's puzzle mechanics to those found in physical escape rooms. Additionally,
Penrose Station is inspired by several different VR pieces which I will discuss in more detail
below.
3.1 Gone Home
Figure 1
Gone Home
Gone Home is a critically-acclaimed first-person three-dimensional exploration game by
The Fullbright Company that made its debut in 2013. Set in the mid-1990s, the player takes on the
role of Katie, a young woman returning from a trip to Europe only to find an empty home and her
8
father, mother, and sister mysteriously missing. The player must explore the seemingly
abandoned house at their own pace and piece together the whereabouts of Katie’s family by
interacting with various documents and objects. The narrative in Gone Home is revealed through
diary entries — framed as letters addressed to Katie during her travels — from Katie’s younger
sister, Sam, who also narrates the game. Gone Home also lacks combat or enemies.
Several years later, Gone Home is now known as one of the first “walking simulators,”
originally intended as a derogatory term for these kinds of “exploration-driven, character-driven
game[s]” such as Dear Esther, Firewatch, and What Remains of Edith Finch. Players of walking
simulators seek to “understand the people who inhabit that space, and what those people want,
and why” and to “understand why that space is ugly or beautiful, peaceful or foreboding,” through
exploration. (Ballou, 2019)
Penrose Station shares many commonalities with Gone Home and other walking
simulator games: slow gameplay, exploration of a seemingly abandoned space, reliance on
voiceover to deliver a narrative, and placement of queer female characters at the center of the
story. However, Penrose Station may share even more similarities to Fullbright’s follow-up to
Gone Home, a game called Tacoma.
3.2 Tacoma and Sleep No More
Tacoma is a narrative-driven, first-person perspective walking simulator for PC/consoles
set aboard a high-tech space station. The player can explore the space station as a contractor
named Amy who has been sent by the corporate entity that owns the station.
Throughout the course of the game, the player discovers details of the station’s former
crew through the station’s onboard AI ODIN, which has captured 3D recordings of life aboard the
9
station, all in the time leading up to a mysterious accident. Through ODIN’s captured data, players
can rewind, fast-forward, and move through these digital recordings as a sort of in-game
“augmented reality” filter to examine past events from multiple angles and discover information
about the accident, as a sort of “interactive cutscene.” (Suellentrop, 2017)
Figure 2
Sleep No More
Tacoma’s “captured data” mechanic was reportedly inspired by the immersive theatrical
experience Sleep No More by the British company Punchdrunk. In Sleep No More, the
performance loops three times in the course of one night, allowing participants to try to piece
together parts of the plot as the action is re-enacted over and over; attendees are allowed to
move freely about the venue and follow whichever characters or plotlines they wish as they
converge or diverge. (Suellentrop, 2017) However, while Sleep No More is primarily based upon
10
the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with elements of Hitchcock and film noir movies, the story
within Tacoma is wholly original.
My game, Penrose Station, works very similarly to Tacoma in that the player must
investigate an abandoned facility (a deep-sea research station versus a space station, in this
case) to solve a mystery and learn more about events that have already occurred. Similar to
Tacoma, the player discovers captured data while on the station, though that data is in the format
of audio recordings. However, the story in Tacoma eventually is revealed to revolve around
disputes between a corporation and union workers; in contrast, the narrative in Penrose Station
revolves around a love triangle, and the core of the “big reveal” is centered around a more
personal conflict, particularly with one character who believes they are doing the morally
righteous thing (even if they are not or the player disagrees).
Figure 3
Tacoma
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And, while Tacoma used 3D display renderings of the events to convey what had already
transpired on the ship, Penrose Station does not have any visible characters. WIRED, in its review
of Tacoma, said that “Tacoma makes you a cinematographer, framing and reframing past events
with your own perspective…. The game's best trick renders you an observer, and by doing so it
weakens the player's ability to deeply connect to the world it places you in. Tacoma's gaze is
expressive, but it's also distant. You don't really exist in the same world as these people, after all.
They act on a stage for you. Memories, not friends. Ghosts and echoes.” (Muncy, 2017)
In contrast, for Penrose Station, my intent as a designer is that while listening to the audio
recordings in my project, players will have an experience that is more similar to listening to a
good podcast or audio play or reading a good book; ideally, players will use their imaginations to
reconstruct the settings and characters and feel more connected to the story, overall, particularly
since they will be virtually present in the environment where the recordings were extracted from.
Additionally, by giving the player agency to make a big ethical decision at the end of the
game about the fate of the ship’s artificial intelligence agent DANNI — while realizing that their
specific actions (as the player) caused a specific outcome — I hope to give the player a more
compelling, emotional experience that grounds them in the same world as the characters in
Penrose Station, even if their specific virtual environment (the ship’s control room) has been
abandoned by these characters.
3.3 Escape Rooms
Scott Nicholson defines escape rooms as “live-action team-based games where players
discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish
a specific goal (usually escaping from the room) in a limited amount of time.” (2016) Similar to
escape rooms, Penrose Station expects players to discover clues and solve puzzles. It takes
12
place primarily in a small number of environments, with the majority of the gameplay occurring in
a single location. After the player enters the control room of the ship, they become trapped within
its confines and it is implied that they need to restore the ship’s computer to be able to escape.
However, unlike an escape room, Penrose Station is experienced alone, meaning that the player
is intended to be able to solve all of its puzzles on their own and there is no time limit imposed
upon the player.
Figure 4
The Edison Room at Palace Games in San Francisco, CA
Nicholson also notes that escape rooms “can be a collection of puzzles and tasks without
a theme or a narrative” but it is equally valid to “have a narrative, and craft the puzzles such that
the puzzles are part of the storytelling and move the narrative along.” Additionally, in where the
13
narrative and puzzles are tightly bound in this way, “the puzzles cannot be separated from the
narrative, as they are part of the story.” (2016) It is my hope that the design of Penrose Station
falls into the latter category as described by Nicholson.
Puzzle organization also varies widely among escape rooms. For example, puzzles can be
presented so that the entire team can work on multiple puzzles simultaneously and converge at
the final solution. Or a team may be presented with separate paths to follow, in parallel, where
each path is its own sequence. All paths lead to a result that is needed for a single, final
meta-puzzle. Or the puzzles can be presented sequentially in a single path such that each
solution unlocks the next puzzle. These escape rooms are formulated more as a series of linear
tasks. (Nicholson, 2016) This last approach is the method Penrose Station takes, but not without
some design tradeoffs.
For example, escape rooms also often follow a “single use” philosophy: once a player has
used a prop, key, or clue, it can safely be set aside; this provides clarity and a smoother gameflow
overall. (Spira, 2017) Props that are not directly related to a puzzle are also commonly bolted,
strapped, glued down, or made otherwise inaccessible, so as not to unintentionally lead players
to dead ends. (Hanson, 2019) And eye-catching objects in escape rooms which are meant purely
as set dressing or to lend atmosphere to an environment can also be detrimental to gameplay in
a similar fashion by acting as red herrings; designers are advised to avoid including these in the
room. (Spira, 2021)
Taking these factors in mind, in Penrose Station, interactable objects are typically frozen
in place and not made interactable or grabbable until the appropriate moment in the game; once
a puzzle is solved or a task is finished, the objects are no longer interactable. This is so players
are not distracted by or confused by objects which are not relevant to their current task as
Penrose Station has only a single active puzzle or task at a time. However, the inability to interact
14
with an object that appears interesting or relevant or useful until the time is “right” may potentially
cause a break in presence, as this would not normally be a problem in a real-life space. In
everyday life, documents and objects are typically not permanently affixed to surfaces and such
objects do not magically become loose only when the time is right. This potential break in
presence, however, is a necessary tradeoff I am willing to make, at least for now, to ensure the
player continues to move forward in the progression of the game.
(See Chapter 4 for a more detailed discussion of presence.)
3.4 The Room VR: A Dark Matter
Figure 5
The Room VR: A Dark Matter
The Room VR: A Dark Matter by Fireproof Games is one of the most popular virtual reality
games, notable for its exemplary puzzle mechanics, usage of scale, and creepy Lovecraftian
15
atmosphere. The game transports its players to London, 1908 after the disappearance of an
esteemed Egyptologist prompts a police investigation. The Room VR: A Dark Matter plunges
players into a creepy, supernatural mystery. This particular game is the latest in a series of
popular “puzzle box” style games available on mobile devices; the creators felt that after
mastering the medium of mobile, virtual reality was a perfect match for the style of gameplay that
they had already established. Their previous games relied heavily upon challenges leveraging
touchscreen gestures, making the transition into VR seem like a natural fit.
In a blog post on the Playstation web site, creators Fireproof Games mention that a
surprisingly challenging part of the VR design process was around “[putting] a lot of effort into
[modeling] weight and resistances and adjusting the controls to make the players hand
movements feel direct, physical, and impactful.” (Meade, 2020) The ability to open drawers, turn
cranks, pull ropes, and more in VR helps the player feel as if they are actually “there” in the story
world in this game.
However, reviewers often pointed out that the plot elements of the game are its weakest
aspect, despite nearly universal positive reviews of the experience. Said Game Informer, “This
story doesn’t go much deeper than the initial interesting premise, and it leaves you with some
disappointingly unresolved mysteries, but I still enjoyed the ride.” (Reeves, 2020) IGN also
observed, “the story itself is poorly explained through a few hand-scrawled notes and brief
glimpses of Myst-style FMV characters… while also being completely pointless and unrelated to
any of the puzzles you are actually solving.” (Marks, 2020)
Overall, the aforementioned so-called pointlessness can leave the core gameplay loop
feeling unbalanced. The player’s reward for progressing is often a confusing holographic
cutscene-like animation that is neither compelling nor meaningful. While the sensory pleasure of
solving tactile puzzles in a virtual environment is the primary appeal to players, I agree that the
16
narrative aspects of The Room VR: A Dark Matter often feel like an afterthought. While the
sensory pleasure of solving tactile puzzles in a virtual environment is the primary appeal to
players, I agree that the narrative aspects of The Room VR: A Dark Matter often feel like an
afterthought. Ideally, the story in this type of VR game would be considered intrinsic to the
experience itself. In the design of Penrose Station, I am integrating the act of solving a puzzle or
completing a task with the unlocking of a new audio fragment in the ship’s computer for a closer
coupling of content and mechanics.
3.5 Wolves in the Walls
Figure 6
Wolves in the Walls
There are also a growing number of VR experiences that contain game-like elements or
moments of interactivity that are difficult to classify purely as films or as video games; these
17
projects, such as Baba Yaga, Vader Immortal, and Wolves in the Walls, tend to straddle the line
between an interactive cinematic VR experience and what is more commonly expected of a
game. While some players may complain that these interactive media are not “games” per se,
these VR experiences are pushing the boundaries of storytelling on this kind of platform. The role
that the player takes on in each of these is crucial to the plot of the narrative and only their
actions propel the story forward.
Wolves in the Walls by Fable Studio (a team made up of animation and VR veterans from
Oculus’ now-defunct Story Studio) is an interactive VR storytelling experience that treads the line
between a film and a game. Adapted from the original children’s book by Neil Gaiman and Dave
McKean, the story centers around a nine-year-old girl, Lucy, who is convinced that wolves are
living in the walls of their family home, even if nobody else believes they are there.
The piece casts the player as “Lucy’s imaginary friend” who can see everything that Lucy
sees and hears in VR, but the rest of Lucy’s family cannot see or hear the player; this gives the
player an “alibi” for participating and existing in the world of Wolves in the Walls, as well as a
specific role to play in the narrative itself as the action unfolds. The player becomes Lucy’s
primary witness to events that the rest of the family denies are happening. It also explains why
Lucy addresses the player directly as her confidant, but the rest of the family ignores the player
throughout the course of the experience. Additionally, while the story is essentially linear, the
player is given specific moments to interact with the objects and environments in the story at
Lucy’s behest, which helps the player to feel like they are somewhat part of the Wolves in the
Walls world, even if the other characters never acknowledge their presence.
The player only exists for Lucy within the experience. And the results of the actions that
the player takes, usually at Lucy’s behest, in the experience can be chalked up by the other
characters as being unimportant or a mere coincidence, and not directly caused by someone
18
with agency to act (or not act) when prompted. This design decision can put the player in an
awkward position: feeling only partially present in the story, neither voyeur nor true participant,
neither “inside” nor “outside” the immersive environment. Whereas in Penrose Station, I
specifically wanted the player to feel part of the storyworld.
I will also discuss this “inside” vs. “outside” distinction and its effects on presence in more
detail in Chapters 4 and 5.
* * *
Based upon my analysis of these other projects, I hope that Penrose Station pulls
together and improves upon the most compelling elements of other formats like walking
simulators, real-life escape rooms, VR puzzle games, and interactive VR experiences.
19
Chapter 4: Immersion and Presence in VR
4.1 Distinctions Between Immersion and Presence
While the concepts of “immersion” and “presence” in virtual reality are often discussed
together, I would like to point out some important distinctions regarding these two related but
different ideas. According to Slater and Wilbur, “immersion” is defined as the objective degree to
which a virtual reality application projects stimuli onto the sensory receptors of the player,
according to their Framework for Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE). A successfully immersive
experience according to the FIVE criteria delivers upon several related aspects:
● Inclusiveness, which is the “extent to which physical reality is shut out”
● Extensiveness, which is the “range of sensory modalities accommodated”
● Surroundness, which is the “extent to which this virtual reality is panoramic rather
than limited to a narrow field”
● Vividness, defined as the “resolution, fidelity, and variety of energy simulated
within a particular modality (for example, the visual and color resolution)”
● Body matching, which requires that there is a “match between the participant's
proprioceptive feedback about body movements and the information generated
on the displays,” where, for example, rotation of the head would result in
corresponding spatial audio and visual changes in a virtual environment
● A self-contained plot, defined as “a story-line that is self-contained, has its own
dynamic, and presents an alternate unfolding sequence of events, quite distinct
from those currently going on in the ‘real world.’” (1997)
How does Penrose Station match up to these criteria? A modern VR headset such as the
Meta Quest 2 shuts out most of the world around the player and provides a 104-degree
20
horizontal field of view (Musil, 2022). The hardware itself is apt at ensuring both inclusiveness
and surroundness. I also rely on the senses of sight, sound, and touch (via haptics) to fulfill the
extensiveness criteria in creating a unified simulation of a hypothetical world. Penrose Station
also provides the player a 360-degree environment rendered at a high-enough fidelity (in terms
of frame rate, bitrate, and resolution) to strive for vividness. The first-person player controller in
the game “body matches” (or corresponds with) what the player appears to feel as they move
their virtual body (note: I have provided both smooth locomotion and teleportation options for
maximum comfort). This fictional world also holds an internally consistent narrative that does not
rely on outside knowledge. Together, these fulfill the requirements articulated in the Slater and
Wilbur FIVE framework (1997).
However, as Jerald, “immersion is only part of the VR experience as it takes a human to
perceive and interpret the presented stimuli.” (2016, p. 96) This observation is similar to issues
within game design pointed out by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (2003). That is to say,
immersive environment or virtual reality design is a second-order problem: the experience can
only be created indirectly, not directly by a designer. Immersion is useless without a subject.
The qualities listed above in the Slater and Wilbur framework are merely the objective
factors that can create the conditions necessary for immersion. But it is only the subjective,
perceived, idiosyncratic experience of any particular participant can lead to presence (Jerald,
2016, p. 96) or that elusive feeling of “being there,” where “there” is somewhere else in space
and/or time (Slater and Wilbur, 1997).
Presence, then, can be thought of as the internal, subjective experience of the player
while directly experiencing the immersive stimuli. That is to say, the player feels so present in the
virtual experience that the fact they are experiencing it via a heavy headset in a different physical
21
environment (the real world) seems to fade away, without conscious consideration of the
technology in use. And, when successful, it’s also been reported that users of VR who feel fully
present in an experience have a recollection of “a place visited” after their experience, rather
than stimuli that are merely perceived (Jerald, 2016, p. 97). Through careful design decisions, I
hope that Penrose Station can become one of these “places.”
4.2 From Suspension of Disbelief to Presence
The concept of “suspension of disbelief” can generally be described in popular culture as
a willingness to pretend that premises, actions, and outcomes that normally would be rejected or
questioned are believably real (Tomko, 2007, p. 242). And, per Aristotle’s original writings, in
order for suspension of disbelief to work, the “audience accepts fiction as reality so as to
experience a catharsis or a releasing of tensions to purify the soul.” (Safire, 2007).
But how can it be that the audience literally believes that the actions on stage and screen
are in fact reality, particularly if they are presented in such a format? More accurately, suspension
of disbelief can also be described as a study in contradictions: firstly, the audience can recognize
that we are collectively witnessing a piece of fiction; but, secondly, we can simultaneously believe
or feel that what we are watching is indeed happening, and also hold both beliefs to be true at
the same time. (Mueller, 2014)
There also appears to be a clear throughline between the mental state of a player who is
experiencing “presence” in a virtual environment via the usage of virtual reality technology
(Jerald, 2016) and the idea behind “suspension of disbelief,” in a fictional world (Coleridge, 1817),
whereby Coleridge was directly referring to “persons and characters supernatural, or at least
romantic.” I propose that immersion and presence in VR take the concept of suspension of
22
disbelief and add an additional, important dimension; for while the audience for a movie or a play
may indeed have a temporary belief that the depicted fiction is “real,” a technology like virtual
reality allows the audience to believe they are inside the actualized world of the story itself.
To me, this implies that the suspension of disbelief in VR extends not only to the actors
and action that may be occurring within one’s headset, but also the environment surrounding it
all. And by creating a cohesive, narratively self-contained world with a clear storyline, I hope to
take advantage of this feature of VR within Penrose Station.
4.3 Photorealism and Believability
It should be noted that — somewhat counterintuitively — an increase in photorealism
does not correlate directly with an increase in presence. Zimmans and Panter found that even a
minimally rendered environment without significant lighting and surface details can still be
perceived by users as plausible and does not negatively affect presence when compared to a
highly detailed environment. (2003) As Jerald notes, “realism is not necessarily the goal of VR
and there are trade-offs for attempting to perfectly simulate reality, even if reality could be
perfectly simulated.” (2016, p. 46)
This finding also supports some of the environmental and object design decisions as
discussed in Chapter 2. For Penrose Station, the design team’s general rule was to follow the
Pareto principle: creating a world that was realistic roughly 80% of the time and (less) realistic
20% of the time, viewing ultra-realism or photo-realism as a tradeoff for the player experience in
terms of playability, discoverability, and overall usability.
23
4.4 Place Illusion and Plausibility Illusion
One issue with the term “presence” is its often catch-all nature when used in various
contexts both within and outside of VR. To further clarify the term’s usage, specifically as it relates
to VR, Slater has proposed the concepts of “place illusion” and “plausibility illusion” as more
detailed and nuanced terminology, especially as it relates to participant response to virtual
environments. (2009)
Slater defines “place illusion” as “the strong illusion of being in a place in spite of the sure
knowledge that you are not there.” It is the sensation of actually being in the place depicted by
the virtual environment. In contrast, “plausibility illusion” is “about what is perceived…. that what is
apparently happening is really happening (even though you know for sure that it is not).” Slater
also observes that a key part of this notion of plausibility illusion is that “events in the virtual
environment over which you have no direct control refer directly to you.” (2009)
That is to say, when there is a sense that elements of the VR environment are directly
addressing the player, the mere fact of this observation by the player then also enhances the
reality of that virtual world, as in a type of virtuous cycle. This type of “plausibility illusion” can be
found within Penrose Station as various non-player characters or AI characters either are directly
addressing or appear to be directly addressing the player, in their role as the player character.
Slater concludes that “if you are there (place illusion) and what appears to be happening is really
happening (plausibility illusion), then this is happening to you! Hence you are likely to respond as
if it were real.” (2009)
In contrast, I have observed that cinematic VR experiences often don’t take full advantage
of virtual reality’s affordances, instead placing the participant as external to the main action and a
passive voyeur with no agency, relying more upon the usage of place illusion than plausibility
illusion. Experimental VR projects that get showcased on the festival circuit often take this less
24
interactive approach; participants often do not even have visible “hands” present in the
experience as it unfolds and are thus unable to engage with the virtual environment in that
fashion. And without player interaction, the virtual environment cannot react, and any subsequent
events in the virtual environment that follow feel as if they are occurring in a preordained manner,
with the participant simply along for the ride. Essentially, the virtual reality experience cannot
address the player if it does not even acknowledge their very existence.
With that said, Slater’s line of reasoning then leads me to ask, for any given experience,
how is the player being addressed directly by the virtual environment and its events, per the
above definitions? And furthermore, can the player have the ability to respond as if the virtual
simulation were real? Then, is assigning a voice to the player in the virtual environment, to go
alongside their virtual body, the logical next step?
I will discuss the importance of casting the player in a specific role in an immersive
experience and the possibility space which is opened when the player character is given a literal
voice in VR in the following chapters.
25
Chapter 5: Casting the Player
5.1 Definitions and Usage
I find that giving the player a role in a virtual reality game is similar to the approach of
“casting the audience” in themed entertainment and within immersive/interactive theatre. What
does this mean precisely? Jeff Wirth writes that “in traditional theatre, the audience assumes a
reactive role, responding to the performance in a passive fashion. Interactive theatre expands the
experience of the audience by offering them a proactive role, in which they are invited to join as
a collaborator in the creation of the performance.” (1994)
For example, in participatory shows like Tony and Tina’s Wedding, “audience members
not only participated but were cast in roles which… depended upon their active participation,” as
a prerequisite. Schmitt, in a survey of several such productions, noted that the type of
participation varied widely, including both scripted and improvised conversation, interactions with
performers one-on-one as well as in groups, and collective decision-making. (2013).
Sam Turich of Bricolage Production Company states that projects which ask the audience
to participate are “truly successful only if practitioners assiduously answer the most important
question in the participant’s mind: Who am I?” In their piece OjO, Bricolage casts the participant
as a traveler whose physical journey starts at a storefront travel agency. Attendees are expected
to be “operating under expectations derived from a familiar environment of travel agents and
airport rigmarole.” Turich also states that the goal of casting the audience as travelers in OjO is
not to turn the participants into actors but that “[when] this work is at its most effective, we’re
introducing the participants to themselves” and the company is “providing the opportunity for
them to gain perspective….” (2016)
26
Figure 7
OjO Pittsburgh
Additionally, Walt Disney Imagineering's Brent D. Strong and Sara Thacher, in a GDC talk
titled “Playing with Magic: Interactive Worlds and Walt Disney Imagineering,” also cited the need
to meet participants “where they are and give them a role that fits” when designing attractions in
the themed entertainment space. For example, the original design of Snow White & Her
Adventures in 1955 attempted to cast attendees in the role of Snow White, but without informing
visitors that they were supposed to be Snow White during the ride. Characters and scenes from
the animated film were shown to the audience during the ride, but not any imagery of Snow
White herself, since the visitors were supposed to be Snow White. Unfortunately, this design
failed because it was too difficult for visitors to imagine themselves as Snow White, especially
concerning everything they already knew about her and her story from the animated film.
27
In contrast, attractions like Star Tours and Haunted Mansion provide a clear, more
relatable role and communicate that role to the audience through a character who directly
addresses them as that role; in Star Tours, the participant is a passenger on a spaceship and
while on Jungle Cruise, the participant is a river tourist. (2019) And in the upcoming Star Wars:
Galactic Starcruiser experience, the participant is also cast as a traveler on a spaceship named
the Halcyon. (Disney, 2021)
I’ll also note here that travel turns out to be a useful framing device for both immersive
theatre (OjO) and themed entertainment purposes as the designers often want to take their
participants on a journey (physical and/or emotional). A state of transience is already embedded
into the concept so attendees understand that their current status may be only a temporary one.
5.2 Social Scaffolding
One possible way of reducing the risk of the participant not understanding their role in an
immersive experience is via social scaffolding. Social scaffolding is a method of using social
science principles to aid in crafting audience agency in immersive experience design. Its power
comes from leveraging “innate understanding of social settings to set certain behavioral
expectations.” For example, in addition to the wedding used in Tony and Tina’s Wedding, many of
the other settings used in social scaffolding are drawn from common experiences, such as the
travel scenarios used in OjO and Star Tours mentioned earlier. These scenarios are so
well-established that even children use them to “scaffold their own make-believe” using settings
such as the home, cops and robbers, and grocery stores, writes Pearce. (2021, p. 13)
The power of social scaffolding comes from its reliance on existing context. A chosen
setting, such as a wedding or a funeral or a birthday party, is “well-understood” by many or
considered to be a “universal” experience. Therefore, participants already possess “knowledge
28
of the majority of social rules dictated by the occasion.” And, because of that previous history,
they already have a sense of what is expected of them during the experience. (Pearce, 2021, p.
13)
5.3 Scripting the Interactor
In a similar vein, Janet Murray in Hamlet on the Holodeck also writes of “scripting the
interactor,” and the successful design of Dungeons & Dragons. The game purposefully “provide[s]
the interactor with a familiar role” through existing literary and gaming conventions in a fantasy
environment, where a certain set of actions could reasonably be expected to be possible during
the game (p. 79). When citing past experience with other media, Murray observes similar
conventions, writing that “[in] a Western adventure I can be counted on to try to shoot at the bad
guys, and in a horror story I will always enter the haunted house.” Murray also points out how
successful murder mysteries and horror films, in addition to fantasy, can be in conveying existing
conventions.
Similar to the social scaffolding scenarios as described by Pearce, Murray states, “I
perform these actions not because I have read a rule book but because I have been prepared to
do so by exposure to thousands of stories that follow these patterns.” (p. 192) As a player in a
genre-influenced environment, Murray naturally and intuitively begins by taking on an assumed
role within the world.
In my game, the player of Penrose Station is not explicitly informed of their occupation or
exact position with their nameless employer. However, as the designer, I make use of social cues
in the first scene to communicate the setting and give the player a sense of their role in the
experience. The player (addressed only as “Unit 702”) has a friendly but familiar conversation
29
with their colleague (who refers to herself only as “Dispatch”) about an unwanted task being
requested from their manager at “HQ.” This short, light-hearted conversation provides contextual
clues to help position the player socially within the world of the game.
5.4 The Murphy Dynamic Model of Participant Positioning in VR
Figure 8
A Dynamic Model of Participant Positioning in VR
In addition to the player’s designated or designed role within an immersive experience
based upon assumed genre or social cues, it can also be useful to further examine the player’s
perceived identity within that experience and where it falls on multiple spectrums. After all, one of
the first questions that a player in VR might ask at the start of a game is “whose body am I
inhabiting and why?”
30
Dooley Murphy’s proposed model of participant positioning in VR (see Figure 8) helps to
refine the player’s relationship to the virtual environment across three continua: existence,
influence, and identity. This model aims to be capable of “describing how a participant feels
positioned" in relation to a virtual world and any actions occurring in this world. (2021, p. 48) I
note also that Murphy’s model is also aligned with Slater’s notion of plausibility illusion;
dependent upon how the virtual environment directly addresses the player, the player can make
certain assumptions about their existence, influence, and identity in the story world.
When it comes to the player’s existence in the world, they can perceive themselves as
Internal to the depicted world or explicitly External to it or even locate themselves in an
in-between state (described by Murphy as “somehow there-but-not-there”).
As for the player’s influence on the virtual environment, some participants “may feel that
they are steering events softly (e.g. modifying minor details), or determining them strongly (e.g.
deciding a plot’s climax),” and an Active influence on events. However, changing the course of
events from a plot perspective should not be considered a prerequisite for Active influence.
Participants may also feel that “their actions—despite not affecting the story per se—are what
keeps narration moving along, as opposed to letting the simulation idle.” The player may still take
an Active role in the experience without necessarily changing the plot and still be considered an
Active influence. Conversely, if the experience ignores player input altogether, their influence
should be described as Passive.
And lastly, on the third continuum is player identity: whether they feel as if they are more
like themselves (Self) within the experience or more like “someone else,” i.e., an Other, with a
name, a voice, an appearance, and a backstory, such as Alyx Vance in Half-Life Alyx. Murphy
describes an additional Hybrid category of Identity as being evident when some of the four
factors (name, voice, appearance, backstory) are “provided by an artwork’s narrative context, but
31
others are left blank.” Murphy also concedes that situating Self and Other as oppositional poles in
the model is somewhat idealized and that “it is more realistic to admit that participant subjectivity
is better conceived as somewhere in-between these two extremes at almost all times.” When all
four Identity factors are present and evident to the player, their Identity is most likely leaning
towards Other; if some but not all the four factors are evident, their Identity is most likely the
in-between Hybrid; and players may choose to settle upon an Identity closer to Self when the VR
experience offers no clear clues to the contrary. (2021, p. 42-55)
By these metrics, Penrose Station aligns most closely with the axes of
Internal–Active–Hybrid in this model. Murphy points out that Internal–Active–Other experiences
are, perhaps, the most common in VR, describing Half-Life: Alyx, as a game that “positions its
player as a specific diegetic (id)entity who must act fast to survive the increasingly hostile
environments in which she finds herself.” However, games such as Vader Immortal, where the
role of the player is less defined compared to Half-Life Alyx, “straddle the line between being
subjectively classifiable as Self and Other,” creating the more ambiguous Hybrid identity
mentioned previously. (2021, p. 53)
Next, I will discuss how the use of voiceover in Penrose Station affects the player’s
perception of their Identity in VR.
32
Chapter 6: The Unsilent Protagonist
The usage of a silent protagonist is common in PC/console games as well as VR games;
some examples include popular VR games such as The Room VR: A Dark Matter, Vader
Immortal, and Red Matter. The player character does not speak aloud during the game and, when
necessary, is often addressed by non-player characters using a more common generic label such
as “Scout,” “Captain,” or “Agent” during dialog sequences.
However, more and more VR experiences have chosen the use of “unsilent” protagonists
or player characters, particularly games like Half-Life: Alyx, where the player character has a
name, a voice, and/or a face that is visible and known to the player. While having the player
character speak aloud may be considered cheesy or potentially annoying in a PC/console video
game, the ability of a VR player to physically embody a player character — even seeing their
hands and body in virtual space as their “own” — changes the dynamic significantly.
Perhaps this level of embodiment and self-identification with the player’s character can
also create a more tightly bound relationship between the player, the player character, and the
game, while also potentially increasing overall presence and immersion.
6.1 In-World Rationales for an Unsilent Protagonist
Jörg Tittel, of The Last Worker, notes that from his perspective, “the protagonist's silence
should be emotionally or physically motivated,” emphasizing the importance of an in-world
rationale for a particular player character to be quiet (or not so quiet). Tittel also notes that having
an unsilent protagonist can also “give the game an extra literary dimension, giving the player a
narrator's voice.” (J. Tittel, personal communication, February 4, 2022).
33
I see this form of voiceover as providing not only additional details and color to the overall
lore and story world through the character’s voiced observations but also a peek into that
character’s internal monologue, with hints as to their general outlook on the world, as well as
opportunities for possible revelations about their essential nature. Penrose Station uses the
player character’s dialogue similarly at pivotal moments to emphasize dramatic reveals occurring
directly to the player or within the overall narrative, with these goals in mind.
And in The Last Worker, the designers have provided an in-game reason for the character
to continually speak aloud: the character is the last human left alive in a fulfillment center. Says
Tittel, one of the creators of the game, the protagonist's “loneliness justified a thing I usually
loathe in games: a protagonist talking to themselves.” (J. Tittel, personal communication, February
4, 2022). Similarly, for the vast majority of Penrose Station, the player character is alone, trapped
aboard the research station, with only themselves for company, though without the companion
robot character as found in The Last Worker.
6.2 Effectiveness
For some, the success of an unsilent protagonist depends upon how closely the character
aligns with their own personality as a player of VR games. “When there's alignment between your
reaction and the unsilent protagonist's reaction, then it can feel magical because it feels like you
are really identifying with that character through the vehicle of a universal archetypal experience,”
observes VR podcast host Kent Bye.
But this type of serendipity doesn’t always happen. Bye continues, saying that “when your
reactions are not aligned, then it creates an oppositional contrast that has the potential to either
break plausibility of the story or cause you to de-identify with that character.” Bye notes that he
found Alyx’s asides to be charming and unexpected during Half-Life: Alyx, providing additional
34
nuance to his understanding of the character, but that other players might find the same reaction
dialog to be out-of-place and grating, instead of novel and enlightening. (K. Bye, personal
communication, February 3, 2022).
Furthermore, Bye observes that the player reaction to an unsilent protagonist is likely to
differ on an individual to individual basis, musing that it may depend upon “how much flexibility
you have with identifying with a broad range of archetypal expressions within a range of different
contexts.” (K. Bye, personal communication, February 3, 2022). Tittel supported this line of
thinking, stating that in his opinion Alyx’s quips in Half-Life: Alyx fell flat as they were perceived as
being “too written” and “not always reflecting the stakes” to him as a player (J. Tittel, personal
communication, February 4, 2022).
VR researcher Dooley Murphy extended this misalignment issue to his reaction to the
zombie-hunting VR game Arizona Sunshine, stating that during his experience, he “hated the
protagonist… and having him talk inside my head was not only grating, but also a source of
ludonarrative dissonance,” noting that the game’s narrative and mechanics felt in conflict with one
another. Murphy’s style as a player did not mesh with the assumptions made by the game’s
designers, as Murphy noted that his “cowardly approach to dispatching zombies at a safe
distance didn't match up” with the character’s confident one-liners. What Murphy was physically
doing as a player was misaligned with the player character’s commentary within the game itself
(D. Murphy, personal communication, February 1, 2022).
In comparison, the execution of the character of Alyx Vance within Half-Life: Alyx felt more
aligned with Murphy’s style of gameplay and expectations. He notes, “not only did I like Alyx's
personality far more, I also felt that her audible nervousness tallied with my own feelings about
entering a dark sewer without a flashlight.” (D. Murphy, personal communication, February 1,
2022). I should also note that the high quality of writing in Half-Life: Alyx and the voiceover
35
performance of actor Ozioma Akagha seems to have had a major influence on Alyx’s
effectiveness as an unsilent protagonist in the game.
Figure 9
Half-Life: Alyx
6.3 Voice Acting and Vulnerability
Murphy’s observation about liking Alyx’s personality more and empathizing with her
perceived nervousness echoes something that myself and our casting director considered during
the casting and voiceover recording process for Penrose Station. Both the casting director and I
noted that if the quality of the player character’s voice actor had too strong of a perceived
personality in any direction, we became concerned that players of the game would instinctively
dismiss the voiceover performance — and subsequently the character itself — as being too much
of a mismatch between themselves and the actor/character.
36
In the end, the team chose to cast an actor whose performance and voice felt more
amenable to “imprinting” by our target audience, knowing that we were also going to be placing
the player character in a sympathetic scenario immediately at the start of the game: being asked
to go above and beyond at work for one’s boss, and then later finding oneself trapped in
unfamiliar surroundings, taking on more than originally anticipated. I also see this as somewhat
akin to the scenario being presented to the player at the beginning of Gone Home: Katie is
returning home from an overseas trip and is surprised to find her family missing and the house
empty; it’s fairly straightforward for a player to imagine themselves in Katie’s shoes.
Overall, I have received positive feedback on the casting choice and resulting
performance for the player character in Penrose Station. Some early playtesters noted that they
usually disliked having player characters talk to themselves in non-VR video games, but in this
instance, they were intrigued about the way the player character was being presented in Penrose
Station, particularly since the game was in VR and therefore an embodied experience; they
possibly wanted even more vocalizations (such as non-lexical conversational sounds, swearing,
or asides) from their player character as events unfolded throughout the game and thought it odd
when she fell silent even as the drama intensified. In response, I have added additional player
“barks” and “reaction lines” to be implemented when appropriate, in response to events like an
incorrect puzzle correction, a correct puzzle solution, or something unexpectedly happening to
the player.
While the player character in Penrose Station is not intended to be a completely empty
vessel for the player to project themselves onto, I still wanted to give our player character
enough narrative autonomy to respond authentically to the events in the game, but without
requiring explicit player input. And in Penrose Station, as the writer, I have tried to imbue a sense
of anxiety in the player character’s lines, in order to convey her anxiety and uncertainty regarding
37
the situation she finds herself in. While a player character automatically injecting humorous
asides or confident quips at inopportune moments may rub players the wrong way, perhaps
focusing on her vulnerability — and attempting to elicit a genuine desire to protect or care for her
— is more a surefire way to strengthen the bond between an unsilent protagonist and their player
in VR.
38
Conclusion
Through my time making Penrose Station, I have explored the convergence of some of
my favorite aspects of game design: the creation of tactile and mechanical tasks, the usage of
environmental storytelling, an exploration of the affordances of embodied presence in VR, and
the difficult task of marrying impactful narrative to interactivity. I am also pleased to be able to use
this project to tie together my interests in walking simulators, immersive theatre, and escape
rooms into virtual reality games and other virtual reality experiences.
I have been lucky enough to bring all of these elements together within a single virtual
reality experience while also analyzing and unpacking what makes an effective virtual
environment, particularly as it relates to communicating a role to the player and what the player
believes their own identity to be. The concepts of casting the player and communicating to the
player their designated role remain a rich area of study for me.
I plan on completing the game this Spring and submitting it to various game and virtual
reality festivals, with the goal of showcasing it to a wider audience in the future including
submission to the Oculus App Lab.
39
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42

Abstract (if available)

Abstract In this paper, I will discuss my virtual reality game Penrose Station. First, I will describe its overall structure, intended player demographic, and experience goals. Then I will elaborate on its four design pillars: tactile and mechanical tasks, environmental storytelling, embodied presence, and impactful narrative. I will also compare Penrose Station to related works in similar genres such as walking simulators, immersive theatre, escape rooms, virtual reality games, and other virtual reality experiences. I will also explore the elements of building presence and immersion when it comes to the design of virtual environments as well as how a game (or other kinds of interactive media) can communicate the player’s intended role to them. Lastly, I will discuss how a player might perceive their identity in an immersive experience, particularly as it relates to first-person VR games and the usage of voiceover for a player character who speaks aloud.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Yu, Kathryn (author)

Core Title Penrose Station: an exploration of presence, immersion, player identity, and the unsilent protagonist

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 03/25/2022

Defense Date 03/24/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag casting the audience,casting the player,embodiment,environmental storytelling,escape rooms,first person perspective,game design,immersion,immersive,immersive design,immersive game design,immersive gaming,immersive interactive media,immersive media,immersive technology,Interactive Media,OAI-PMH Harvest,participant positioning in VR,place illusion,plausibility illusion,player identity,player role,player voice,presence,puzzle,puzzle design,room escapes,unsilent protagonists,virtual environment,virtual reality,virtual reality design,virtual reality experience,virtual reality game,voice acting,voice over,VR,VR design,VR experience,VR game,VR game design

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Bilson, Danny (committee chair), Fullerton, Tracy (committee member), Nealen, Andy (committee member)

Creator Email kathryn.yu@gmail.com,kyu83126@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC110843363

Unique identifier UC110843363

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Yu, Kathryn

Type texts

Source 20220331-usctheses-batch-918 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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