A devoutly Catholic mother reconnects with her son, Sebastian, through his diary and her imagination. Envisioning a scene from Sebastian’s diary, she imagines him alive and in love.
## About This Game
## NOTE:
Unfortunately, Steamworks has decided to inexplicably censor this 6DoF
interactive VR. If you want to support queer content and voices, please let
Steam know of your displeasure. And, head to Viveport to download this woman
produced and directed interactive experience, part of a Peabody award winning
series!
Queerskins: ARK is a 6DoF interactive virtual reality experience. Reading a
diary left by the estranged son, a Catholic mother (Hadley Boyd) finds a way
to transcend herself and her grief by imagining him alive and in love. With
heart-wrenching performances by Michael DeBartolo and Christopher Vo in
volumetric video and the storytelling potential of spatial sound, Ark allows
you to enter her imagination and co-create the lovers ‘ intimate dance through
your body position and movements. An Intel Studios Original co-produced with
Cloudred.
## The Attic
The viewer finds herself in a dimly lit attic bedroom, a place that seems to
be stuck in time, heavy with memory. Here, you assume the passive role of an
observer in a 360˚ environment. Unable to move, you can examine the
memorabilia-laden surroundings and begin to get an idea of time, place and
what the story might be about. Mary-Helen begins reading her son’s diary.
## El Matador
As Mary-Helen begins to imagine her son’s world, you are transported to a
beautiful beach at dawn. Sebastian and his lover Alex appear, like a daydream
nearby in the landscape. We allow Sebastian to break the 4th wall and directly
implicate you in the scene. We position you quite close to the two men, just
outside their personal space as you listen to their conversation. As Mary-
Helen finds freedom in her imagination, you too now have the freedom to move
around the beach as the experience transforms into 6DoF.
## The Memory
The scene crossfades to an abstraction of the beach. Sebastian and Alex begin
an intimate dance. Depending on how you move in the space, the dancers appear
to respond to your presence. The performance has been choreographed as a
series of segments, each visitor sees only 5 out of possible 24 combinations
within each play session. Replay it to see other potential variations, follow
the blue glowing lights to hear Mary-Helen reading Sebastian’s diary entries.
Raise both arms to gain a new perspective, point your arms forward to fly!
## Back in the Attic
As the lovers fade away, you are now back in the attic. It is the magic hour.
The room is lit with a flat, golden light, reminiscent of the light on the
beach. With a return of detail and color, it feels like the room has come back
to life. Mary-Helen contemplates her new found sense of self.
## Note
Queerskins: ARK is a room scale experience. It can be adjusted for
available space:
— Small (10’x10′ / 3×3 m)
— Medium (20’x20′ / 6×6 m) — Default
— Large (30’x30’ / 9×9 m)
Subtitles are available in English, Spanish, Italian and Polish. Subtitles can
only be set at the beginning of the experience by using your controller or by
pressing corresponding keys on your keyboard. Please see the experience splash
screen for details.
Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
CPU | Intel i7+ | Intel i7+ |
RAM | 8 MB RAM | 16 MB RAM |
OS | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
Graphics Card | NVIDIA GTX 1080+ | NVIDIA GTX 2080+ |
Direct X | Version 11 | Version 11 |
HDD Space | 10 GB available space | 10 GB available space |