The Path of the Chosen
Virtual Reality provides a new way of telling old stories.
Vincent Egan chose a pūrakau, passed to him from his koro as the central narrative for his Master of Design project. The stories of our tūpuna, told to us by our kaumatua or cultural leaders, have a deep cultural richness, and they're loaded with coded lessons about how to act, behave, and think. These same stories are also fun to think about and play with, to interpret and design for.
Using Unreal Engine, Vincent created a Virtual Reality game experience for use on the Oculus platform, developing three levels and quests. The player navigates a uniquely Māori world and is given tasks to complete. The game is set during the chaos of creation, and the player is immersed in this proto-world at the hands of the demiurge Io. Due to these events a cataclysmic war breaks out between the Gods. The chosen deity Tāne is shown the path toward the heavens of knowledge, in the hope he can bring about peace and order. His journey is plagued with demonic entities sent by his jealous sibling Whiro, the deity of malice, suffering and disease. This is the journey of Mythik Tāne.
Vincent won a Gold medal for Mythik Tāne in the Student - Digital section of the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards 2022. Vincent's motivation for game design is to develop more content and heroes that show the values of these deep Aotearoa narratives. The project aims to share a glimpse into the exciting stories of his tūpuna through contemporary technologies in ways that will engage and excite rangatahi.