Explore an abstract world that can only be understood through movement. Find your way using four elusive perspectives that expose and conceal your surroundings. Overcome the unexplained, reveal hidden curiosities and secrets within.
Originally conceived as a research project WORLD4 has gone on to garner broader attention, receiving award nominations at the Freeplay and A MAZE festivals.
WORLD4 is an experimental exploration game where players navigate an ambiguous world. It has been described by players as a puzzle that is explored but not solved.
Key to WORLD4 is the player’s fragmented view of the game world split and layered over four simultaneous first-person perspectives. Each is separate and unreliable, a partial lens for seeing the world; what is visible in one may be invisible in the other three.
To play, players negotiate a series of visually abstract corridors and chambers that play with their perceptual abilities and the four perspectives. For example a wall might be a doorway, and a corridor might appear as a flat wall.
With this in mind, much of WORLD4‘s visual and level design is designed can only understood through movement. There are no goals or guides. Instead the player’s perceptual abilities are key to an experience of discovery in unraveling and charting out the world, and revealing hidden geometric curiosities within.
In creating WORLD4 I wanted to express the sensation of encountering something for the first time, and the curiosity and struggle in trying to make sense of and interpret it. By disrupting clear readings of the world I hope to force players to question their spatial intuition and knowledge.
WORLD4 is primarily played as a solo single-screen experience, but there is also a shared version that uses multiple monitors, with one player steering and other players as roaming-observers.
I have been lucky enough to showcase WORLD4 at multiple public events and venues including Freeplay, A MAZE, and Bar SK. I have also spoken about WORLD4 at multiple international events including Games Connect Asia Pacific. You can view some these talks on my Publications page and download it below.
Awards
