By Recently I spoke with Creative Director Avi Winkler and Director Anne Weigel about V.R. And Human Within.
What was the inspiration for the game?
The concept for Human Within was inspired not only by films like Lawnmower Man and Transcendence, but by true reality as well. It centres around the story of how AI and other high-end technologies influence our lives and how it is on the verge of becoming threatening to society, if misused. The release of ChatGPT 4o is not just linked to AI in films like Her, but the outlook makes our project quite timely and not just be SciFi anymore. The idea of Human Computer Interfaces has been portrayed in several movies, we however link it clearly to today’s available tech and in some ways even relate to the latest news about Neuralink. Set in modern day, where technology is reshaping humanity’s identity, Human Within is a strong conceptual exploration of the consequences with technological advancements, and the impacts of the selfish or compassionate decisions we make in life.
What does V.R. provide that traditional formats could not?
While immersion is at the core of our ambition and no doubt best achieved through VR tools and applications, we feel our unique approach of integrating immersive storytelling with gameplay features delivers a completely new experience and introduces a degree of interactivity unlike anything else that we’ve seen. Given our deep experience as an XR creative studio we are excited and committed to push beyond what many might consider the limits of creativity with projects such as Human Within and others we have in development.
What are the pros and cons of V.R. in your opinion?
VR, its use cases, and user base is clearly growing and evolving. Audiences are becoming more demanding and sophisticated and we embrace this challenge. The appetite for higher quality long form VR content is increasing as is the creative industry’s capacity to deliver. This naturally has come with an increase in development costs. Human Within would not have been possible without the right partnerships and support. As a co-production between Signal Space Lab and Actrio Studio it serves as a great example of harnessing collective global expertise to bring audiences what they want.
What do you think the industry needs to do for the V.R. genre to grow?
There is certainly no shortage of devices for users to choose from but what is lacking is a full and continuous pipeline of high quality, original, and innovative content. The value proposition for users needs to be compelling and align with the upfront investment being made on purchasing the hardware. A single playthrough of Human Within can take between 60-90 minutes, depending on how quickly puzzles and challenges are solved. The experience has several scenes with branching events that lead to 1 of 5 different endings and to experience every aspect of the story that the branching scenes provide, multiple playthroughs are needed. Not including its inherent replayability via an original and thrilling branching storyline, the length of this experience rivals traditional films. We feel taking this long form content strategy is the direction audiences want developers to take.
What were the biggest challenges with the game and your greatest success stories?
Our biggest challenge was certainly bringing the concept to life. The script writing phase had its fair share of hurdles that needed to be overcome, but when it came to creating a storyboarded prototype and ultimately filming the content the degree of difficulty was cranked to eleven. Certain scenes had to be modified or reworked entirely when taking into consideration what was feasible or practical in the filming sense. Given how the scenes are structured, events filmed, and how they are presented to the player from multiple camera angles at the same time, the experience that Human Within offers is truly groundbreaking and unique. We are extremely proud of how it all came together in the end and are excited for fans of VR to see it for themselves.
What do you think will be the next evolution in V.R. and gaming?
We see the industry continuing its slow shift away from novel short form experiences toward more complex and long form storytelling and entertainment. And while games are very clearly the primary use case for VR we feel the market is more nuanced with regards to entertainment. Just as video game enthusiasts enjoy multiple genres, we feel projects such as Human Within can contribute to expanding the audience to new forms and expressions of interactive media.
What do you have upcoming?
Signal Space Lab has a diverse slate of video games and immersive projects in development including those created explicitly for VR. For PC we have an upcoming turn-based tactics combat game called Every Day We Fight with publishing partner Hooded Horse. The studio is also working with solo dev Universe Workshop on a real time strategy action game called Killbot General. Both games are scheduled for release in 2025. And in addition to working on our entertainment products, we are also developing proprietary tools to help others with faster and more efficient VR production. We look forward to sharing more about that and our upcoming lineup in the weeks and months ahead.
