Kate MacVicar and Rik Sampson

Kate MacVicar

Computer Science major

Growing up, I was always drawn to storytelling. I remember filling notebooks with comics with original characters and storylines when I was a kid. And then when I was older, typing in Word documents late into the night, trying to create meaningful relationships and storylines like the ones I was reading about in my favorite books. When I started at Wellesley, I was passionate and excited about computer science because I was fascinated by my ability to create things that were functional and beautiful from seemingly random sequences of symbols and letters. It wasn't until about a year ago that I realized game development was an opportunity for me to combine my love of coding and storytelling. Because VR mimics real life, VR experiences can affect people more profoundly than other traditional media. With VR, I am able to take storytelling to the next level. I hope to responsibly create VR experiences that have a powerful impact on people and make vivid stories come to life.

Rik Sampson

Media Arts & Sciences major

There have been many different ways I've delved into art during my time at Wellesley, but the one thing I keep finding myself going back to is video games. Part of this fascination comes from the interactive nature of games, in addition to the interdisciplinary nature of game development. My experience in game development has helped me reconcile what I initially felt were contradictory parts of my major: computer science and art. Developing games has also allowed me to process grief, explore the possibilities in representation, as well as consider the importance of accessibility within games and the artistic value of games. To me, video games are art, even games that don't fall under the "indie arthouse game" genre.

Echoes of the Past

virtual reality

Jewett Hallway Galleries

Partially inspired by the concept of psychometry, this VR experience centers around exploring a fictional world and piecing together its history through observing environmental clues or looking into the past, and is merely a small slice of a larger, imagined VR project. We embarked on this project not only to expand our knowledge of VR development but also to encourage critical thinking about how the technical and artistic aspects of game development relate, as well as to explore the possibilities of VR as a storytelling medium.

VR and video games are both interactive media, but VR is unique in its inherent immersiveness. The freedom afforded to the user is a core aspect of VR: they are able to freely look around and interact with their environment. While it is certainly possible to construct a strictly linear VR experience by limiting what the user can do or see, this approach means that the possibilities of VR aren't being truly utilized. This led us to the question: how do we create a cohesive narrative specifically within VR without necessarily adhering to traditional forms of linear storytelling?

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