You are being followed

Visual Impairment impacts over 2 million individuals in the UK, with its associated emotional and psychological dimensions—such as heightened vulnerability and anxiety—often overlooked in digital storytelling (RNIB, 2020). You Are Being Followed (YABF) addresses this gap, offering a VR experience that explores these themes through the lens of interactive media.

Initially tasked by BAFTA to bring a winning concept from the Young Game Designer competition to life, the project aimed to explore the potential of VR technology. Collaborating with Sony’s PlayStation®First programme, YABF became one of the first university games published for PlayStation®VR. The game invites players to step into the shoes of a blind protagonist navigating a mysterious world, employing innovative spatial audio design, abstract visual storytelling, and responsive narrative techniques to convey themes of vulnerability, perception, and resilience. The game creatively deconstructs visual design, using abstract imagery and minimalistic visual cues to reflect the protagonist’s non-visual perception of the world. This design choice shifts the focus away from traditional sight-based interactions, instead immersing players in a richly crafted auditory environment. Spatial audio plays a central role, with meticulously designed soundscapes that guide navigation, evoke emotional tension, and represent unseen elements of the environment.

YABF achieved significant recognition, being showcased at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in 2019 as part of the UKRI representation in Washington, DC, and the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco the same year. In 2020, the game was exhibited at the House of Holyrood in Edinburgh. Additionally, YABF was nominated for the TIGA Creative Assembly Best Student Game in 2021. With over 500,000 downloads on a prominent platform, the PlayStation®Store, the game has reached a vast audience, exemplifying the power of VR to foster empathy and understanding for complex sensory and emotional experiences.