Tom Crago / Australia

Australia born 1976

This project by Melbourne games designer Tom Crago uses the latest virtual reality (VR) systems and hardware to create a new kind of game at the intersection of art and design. The game is about existentialism – emphasising that each individual person is free and responsible to determine their life through their own actions.

Entering the game, each player discovers that they are a virtual traveller alone on an awe-inspiring ship. In this haunted digital space, the player moves through the vessel, collecting glowing fragments of a geometric work of art by artist Viv Miller. These elements combine as a unique audiovisual composition.

Materials, 2016-17, not only explores the potential of games to encourage mindfulness and reflection but also examines how art can be embedded within a games world. The work engages players in a poetic investigation of the human psyche; a journey of isolation, self-discovery and competition. Key features of the game have been created by Australian artists William Mackinnon, Viv Miller, Indigo O’Rourke, Mark Rodda and Kate Tucker, with sound design by David Shea.

BIO

Tom Crago is the CEO and owner of video game developer Tantalus, a Melbourne-based studio that has produced more than forty titles. Representing a personal project three years in development (incorporating a PhD at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne), Crago’s innovative approach to gaming engages players in a poetic investigation into the human psyche; an existential journey of isolation, self-discovery and competition. In addition to Tantalus, Crago owns and runs sister studio Straight Right, which has worked with successful game franchises, including Mass Effect, Deus Ex and Need for Speed. He is the author of Flashbacks from the Flow Zone (2014).