"Are You Still Watching?" is a VR experience about depressive episodes, focusing in on my personal experience with them, a look inside my brain. The narrative follows a 3 part story, the start of my depressive episodes, the during, and the after. In it I'll be narrating my symptoms before the episode, how I know that it will start soon. The thoughts and feelings I have during one, and how I navigate coming out of one and live my daily life. However, this narration will all be using 2nd person language. I'll be prompting the user along using "you" language as if they are the one who's stuck in their head during the episode. It should be pointed out that people experience depressive disorders in their own way and everyone has their own personal experience that may differ from others. I'm making this experience to provide people without mental illness a chance to look in on my experience to generate more empathy for those with mental illness while also normalizing mental health topics of discussion.
It'll start in a narrow hallway, you'll be told that the depressive episode will be starting soon because you're neglecting self-care habits, not eating, not showering. Eventually you'll reach a bed where upon collision you'll move to the "during". In this room covered in fog, you'll be hearing voices coming from different TVs. The voices will have dark thoughts and feelings related to your depression. Eventually you'll be able to leave through a door to your bedroom where you've realized you're no longer in the episode and have to stop neglecting yourself and the world around you. Additionally I want to add credits that'll direct players to mental health resources.
For Demo Day I have a walkthrough of the current floor plans for "Are You Still Watching?" in VR. All 3D models except the bodies were created by me, all animation is using mocap I have recorded. The walkthrough is pretty basic, just showing off the atmosphere and visuals as well as the teleporting in between parts. My next step is adding the audio narration. Also the video is a bit tilted because the VR headset is heavy and my head was naturally tilted to the side.
