Proximity
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Proximity title card: the word Proximity in glowing letters over a starfield
Role Creative Director / Co-Founder
Studio Inscape Studios
Period Jan 2019 – Oct 2022
Team Core team of 5, up to 10 for specific work like art assets
Released Limited private release
Platform Quest 2

Proximity

Prototype VR narrative adventure with AI-driven conversation

I was the sole developer, which grew into a core team of 5 that I managed to complete the fully playable experience.
  • 1Developer at the start: me
  • 5Core team by the end

01What I owned

Proximity is a prototype, a passion project I started with my co-founder Matt. Apart from the creative vision, I owned:

  • Creating and implementing all the player interactions and puzzle elements
  • Mission and story progression
  • All of Lou's interactions and animations, using a mocap suit, hand animation and FinalIK
  • Pitching and funding the concept
  • Hiring and managing a fully remote team of around 5

02The idea

Proximity is a prototype of a narrative adventure for Quest 2, featuring conversation-driven gameplay with an eccentric robot named Lou. Players can talk with Lou, whose voice is generated in real-time, allowing Lou to respond in potentially new and original ways each play session.

I started with the thought "What if you could go on a narratively-driven adventure but you had a companion that you could turn to talk to at any point throughout it?"

In-headset view of a dim sci-fi outpost with a glowing ceiling light; a display on the player's wrist shows a typed exchange with Lou
The player's wrist display keeps a running log of the conversation with Lou.

The goal was to create an interactive AI character that you could develop a relationship and bond with through conversation and working through challenging circumstances together.

I secured closed beta access to GPT-3 and started working directly with OpenAI to understand what these models could actually do in an interactive context.

03Prototyping the story

I created a 'VR storyboard' where I blocked out and posed all the major beats to show the flow and narrative structure. I did this before art was requested and before I created and hooked up all the animations.

The robot boots up and the player can talk to him.
The player plugs a memory shard into the robot.

04Conversation as gameplay

The surgery sequence is built around talking with Lou. The player searches for the malware, describes it to Lou out loud, and if the description is right Lou creates an antibody and unlocks the heart. The player then guides the heart to the antibody and on to the malware, and repeats the sequence until every area of the body is clear.

Flowchart of the surgery sequence: search for malware, describe it to Lou, guide the heart to the antibody, then guide the powered heart to the malware, looping until all areas are cleared
The surgery flow, with the failure and timeout loops.
A simpler flowchart of the surgery sequence ending with Lou dying and being revived by mirror energy
A simpler version of the same flow.

05Building Lou

I created and set up all of Lou's interactions and animations with a combo of myself in a mocap suit, hand animating and FinalIK implementation.

Inputs Output Mocap suitwith me in it Hand animating FinalIK combo of all three Lou's interactions and animations Inputs Mocap suitme in it Hand animating FinalIK combo of all three Output Lou's interactions and animations
Lou, a lanky robot with a yellow boxy head, stands in a cramped outpost room; the wrist display reads Lou: How about a high five?
Lou in the outpost. The wrist display shows Lou offering a high five.
Proximity gameplay

06Pitch and team

This was a passion project created with a team of around 5 people started by myself and my co-founder Matt. With my experience in games and design and Matt's experience in writing and narrative we set out to create this interactive VR experience.

I started as the sole developer. We successfully pitched and raised funds for the concept as well as hired a team to help create it, and that core team of 5 completed the fully playable experience.

We built the base framework for Proximity together with Playabl Studios. The game had a limited private release.

07What I learned

Proximity and FORM both taught me a lot about how quickly you can get to the truth of whether something is actually fun when you're working fast and hands-on.

Skills Applied

Conversational AI Narrative Design Interaction Design Unity Motion Capture Remote Team Leadership