Nadja Lipsyc has been associated with the PhD programme FILMART at INN University.
In her artistic development project, she has worked on a role-playing game called 'Lone Wolves Stick Together'.
'Lone Wolves Stick Together' is a result of collaboration between Lipsyc and the students from the Film School's bachelor's programme (class 11) in production design and sound design, autumn semester 2018. The collaboration involved building six physical environments in the school's studio that could accommodate a live-action role-playing game (LARP).
– By using physical experiences as a means to create and playtest virtual first-person narratives and multiplayer games, 'Lone Wolves Stick Together' explores the possibility of combining VR with tools and techniques from live-action role-playing (LARP), video games, film and participatory fiction, she writes to inn.no.
'Lone Wolves Stick Together' is a story that exists both as a physical installation and a VR project.
– I have looked at how to use the entire creative potential of digital immersion, she continues.
Digital immersion is when an illusion or digital experience, such as using VR, surrounds you and places you inside of the world of the story, and you sort of forget the real world around you.
Her artistic development work explores interactive storytelling in VR (virtual or artificial reality) and is linked to the development of this role-playing game, which in turn is inspired by the film 'Stalker' (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky.
– 'Lone Wolves Stick Together' is the first LARP developed entirely as a standalone VR experience, and is a proof of concept of the viability and intuitiveness of the game form, while simultaneously promoting reflections on technology ethics and co-creation, the PhD candidate writes to inn.no.
Here is more information about Nadja Lipsyc's public defence 31 May 2024.
Main findings in the doctoral work:
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LARP (live action role-playing game) techniques translate fluidly and intuitively to immersive VR experiences.
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VR-specific workshops and classic LARP and theatre workshops are both sufficient and necessary to onboard players into creating meaningful and engaging multiplayer VR narratives.
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Sound can be layered to play with VR affordances: spatial and environmental, local and interactive, ambisonics and character-specific.
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A “ritournelle” structure where role-playing scenes alternate with introspective scenes allow to balance creative effort and creative input.
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Simple and stylised digital worlds and avatars are sufficient to create an aesthetic and immersive identity. The lack of full body tracking can be compensated with by relying on pre-game workshops. Minimalism also appears as an advantage in creating inclusive representations.
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Worldbuilding, or “storyworld”-making, allows to create a variety of experiences that enrich one another while catering to different audiences. This is both a creative method and a sustainable practice, as the storyworld and its assets get recycled between experiences and genres. In this research, the different levels of experience are called Swim (narrative interactive exhibition), float (immersive interactive theatre) and dive (full on live action roleplay).
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Pre-existing social VR platforms such as VR Chat can serve as zero-development settings for VR participatory experiences or as rapid-prototyping platforms.
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Participatory storytelling and creative agency push forward players' engagement in VR. It is this sense of agency that allows the participants to experience meaningful interactions and choices.
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Physical play/LARP and VR can be used as model for one another, as they rely on similar affordances and principles (designing for presence, for full body engagement, for space, etc.).
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Horisontal co-creation between production design, sound design and narrative design allows for a richer, multilayered immersive experience than traditional hierarchical directing.
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Digitalising/adapting physical experience design can also inspire the opposite: de-digitalising/adapting virtual experience design and exploring physical play.
Contact information:
- nadja.lipsyc@inn.no
- Phone
- +47 61 28 80 77