Ex Nihilo ~ Out of Nothing (2022)

Is humanity ready to hold the power to establish an isolated virtual reality community?

Exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival (2023); New Designers Show in London Business Design Centre (2024)

Featured on Royal College of Art Pluralist Newspaper (2023)

“Ex Nihilo – Out of Nothing” is a desktop game exploring the power dynamics within the virtual landscape. The audience goes through the process of becoming human and all that entails, such as identity, gender, race, sexual harassment and escapism within five levels. The audience experiences a perceived notion of choice on these topics and is confronted with the realisation that they are an extension of self at the end of their immersive journey.

Collaborative teammates:
Niccólo Abate, Shaye Thiel, Katie Weitzmann, & Lyla Zhou

Ideation to Initial Storyboard:

1) Exploring General Themes of Interest

2) Narrowing Down Interests into Research Questions

3) Organize Overlapped Themes & Questions for Storytelling

4) Curate Themes into Initial Storyboard

Directing 2nd Episode/Level:

Scripting with User Interaction

Visual Inspiration

1st Interation of 2nd Episode/Level:

2nd Iteration:

Based on users’ feedback, our team worked to improve and maintain aesthetic cohesion within all aspects for all 5 levels while preserving the core concept & storytelling. In order to achieve this, each teammate focused on a particular aspect - mine being sound design and mastering audio levels.