HyperBody

Welcome to HyperBody dungeons, an experimental open-world VR game space with six intense gameplay levels: Pinkray, Seventeen/Sixty-One, Vampire Squid, Stratholme.GoStop, Typhoon Lionrock, and Garden Portal.

Immerse yourself in an aesthetised trance world that showcases the anime, comics, games, and novels of European and Asian fandoms. The VR experience is "passive", requiring only basic movements such as walking, flying, rotating, and touching. It will help if you search for the portal with a shining eye shape that will take you to a new level.

The experiment encourages players to use their entire bodies to explore the VR space and provide feedback on its aesthetics, movement, and overall feelings!

Are you ready to embark on this psychedelic, rhythm-fueled adventure and imagine an alternative VR cosmos?

LEVEL 1: PINKRAY

Pinkray is a result of a collaborative effort that celebrates queer "tuning" through vidding, shipping, interviews, and architectural mods. It showcases a new "game-fandom" that constantly emerges as "intra-actions".

It features non-collision NPCs, architectural ruins, visual novels with 3D animated texts, and affective NPC dialogues!

LEVEL 2: SEVENTEEN/SIXTY-ONE

Seventeen/Sixty-One is co-created through research and interviews with Chinese science fiction writer Tang Fei. It offers an alternative vision of queer, feminine, and technology in the Chinese science fiction world.

It features 2D illustrations, animations and 3D texts as interactive paths, accompanied by various soundscapes and atmospheric objects.

LEVEL 3: VAMPIRE SQUID

Vilem Flusser's book of the same name inspires the abstract cosmos of Vampire Squid. Explore multiple worlds created by remixing 3D scans of spaces, cartographies, and surfaces from London and Berlin. This complex spatial autoethnographic archive showcases Flusser's ideas on skin, space, and sexuality.

It features non-collision 3D-scanned architectural ruins on a cosmic scale and surreal NPCs.

LEVEL 4: STRATHOLME.GOSTOP

Stratholme.GoStop presents a unique combination of physical and virtual elements based on my best childhood friend, Boxiao's short novel. It has modding and crossover elements between a Chinese post-industrial ordnance factory welfare zone and the Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne universe.

It features visual novels based on dodecahedron objects and various Chinese urban space 3D-scanned ruins.

LEVEL 5: TYPHOON LIONROCK

Typhoon Lionrock is highly speculative about a VR game space's movement, direction, scale, and soundscape. Very difficult and for hard-core players, this level is a tribute to my time killed at the Run Run Shaw Library, City University of Hong Kong.

Be careful not to get dizzy and nauseous from the multiple abstract scenes referenced in Hong Kong, Dunhuang, and Chongqing.

LEVEL 6: GARDEN PORTAL

Garden Portal is based on Chinese immortality cultivation. Explore a non-linear audio-visual space through the primal VR experience with intentionally incomplete and imperfect sound and architectural design.

It features numerous NPCs to be found and touched with multiple hidden tokens and architectural ruins.

* For HyperBody's experimental nature, please check system requirements first, view the quick reference and start playing.

System Requirements Minimum:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)

Processor: Intel Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600

Memory: 16 GB RAM

Graphics: GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 30 GB available space

VR Support: OpenXR, Seated with Swivel Chair, Standing, Roomscale. Valve Index, HTC Vives and Pico using SteamVR. Oculus headsets with Oculus Runtime. WMR headsets with WMR Runtime.

Additional Notes: Virtual Desktop not recommended (Questlink/Airlink Fully Supported) HyperBody uses Unity. 

HyperBody uses Unity. Unity and Unity logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere. Copyright 2024 Unity Technologies. All rights reserved.

HyperBody is an academic project that forms part of a practice-based PhD project. Its purpose is entirely educational and does not involve any commercial interest. It is available for free download.

The game's two levels, "Pinkray" and "Seventeen/Sixty-one", where specific copyrighted sound clips and excerpts have been remixed and used as ambient sounds in the immersive space. These sound remixes have been done following the code of best practices in fair use and transformative, encouraging players to critically reflect on their contextualized understanding of culture, technology, and affection. The artist grannysmilkproductsplant has supported the sound remixes.

In "Pinkray," the following sound remixes have been acknowledged:

- Dead J. "Modern China Is Too Complicated." On Ting Tai Lou Ge. 2018.

- Idol Producer. "Ei Ei." 2018.

- Liu Huan and Na Ying. "Guo Ba Yin." 1995.

- Liu Huan and Wei Wei. "Asian Mighty Winds." 1990.

- Lu Cai. "Capturing Enemies in the Air." On Black Cat Detective Theme. 1984.

- New Pants. "Bye Bye Disco." On Dragon Tiger Panacea. 2006.

- Snow Jiang. "Love River - 8-bit Version (Ying Liu Zhi Zhu)." 2019.

In "Seventeen/Sixty-one," the following sound remixes have been acknowledged:

- Pinkray. "Let It Rain." On Attack. 2019.

- Qian Yuting. "The Peony Pavilion." 2019

- Shaorong, Qingbodejiangxiang and Huanger117. "True Love." 2011.

- Shudder to Think. "Ballad of Maxwell Demon." On Velvet Goldmine. 1998.

- Tat Ming Pair. "Yi Ge Ren Zai Tu Shang." On Tat Ming Pair Zhen Jin Dian. 1987.

- Tora. "Pieces of Ice." On Tora. 1983.

HyperBody would like to acknowledge the contributions of Emma, Tang Fei, Aristo, Jingzhi, CheeseTalk, Linn, and Tianqi. Their work on digital ethnographic studies from 2019-2023 provided context and inspiration for VR gamespace design.

HyperBody would like to express gratitude to Nora O Murchú, the artistic director of Transmediale; Michael Connor, director of Rhizome; Živa Kleindienst and Tadej Vindiš, curators of KIBLA, and Liyan Han, curator of UCCA Edge. Their invaluable guidance, trust, and facilitation have enabled HyperBody to conduct art residencies and installations, providing platforms for showcasing the HyperBody VR game.

HyperBody would like to extend its appreciation to Maximilien Simard-Poirier from Audiokinetic for the academic license of the Wwise sound engine.

Finally, HyperBody would like to thank Alaric, Jiashun, Summer, Yufei, Morgan, Binbin, Yaqi, and the anonymous participants who kindly volunteered their time and expertise to evaluate the HyperBody VR game.

HyperBody would like to express our sincere appreciation to Professor Atau Tanaka, Professor Sylvia Pan, Professor Helen Pritchard, Dr Olli Tapio Leino and the entire team, named and unnamed, in and out of Goldsmiths' Computing Department.