VIKTOR MIKUS

You Only Die Once

Game Media Studio

Your graduate project focuses on the topic of dying in games. It is fascinating that death, which we perceive as so final in real life and whose mystery and irreversibility we are forced to deal with throughout our lives, can be experienced and inflicted practically endlessly in computer games. What did you discover about our relationship to death in computer games during your research?
I was most interested in the concept of dual consciousness, described by Renata Ntelia: as a player, you identify with your avatar, but after its death, this connected consciousness is split – you remember the ending, but the avatar returns to the game pure, as if nothing had happened. Death in a game is therefore not death, but training.

You have created an experimental controller-suit for your game. How does it function? What game mechanics did you work with? And how does multiplayer work in your game?
The suit is not only a controller but also a bridge between the virtual and physical world, which is one of the main motifs of my work. The player puts on a mountaineering jacket which directly refers to the game environment, i.e. the high mountain terrain. There is a sensor hidden in the jacket that detects the player’s breathing. This corresponds to the breathing of the avatar, which only has a limited amount of oxygen. So the faster the player breathes, the sooner his avatar dies. At the same time, they can see the curve of their breath in the user interface, while during testing the players subconsciously slowed down their breathing. In a certain way, the game goes beyond its own boundaries and affects the physiology of the player standing outside the game system.
Multiplayer works asynchronously. Players do not play simultaneously, but sequentially. After the death of the first player, another follows in his footsteps until he also dies, and so on.

What kind of distribution or presentation format do you think is best for experimental games like this? Do you think that the exhibition is a suitable format for them, or can you imagine that people could buy your game to take home?
Since the game is tied to a physical controller, an online presentation is out of the question. At the same time, it requires several players who take turns, not all simultaneously. It would be difficult for a person to take the suit home, since their death should not leave a legacy for anyone (laughs). It clearly belongs in the gallery.

photo: Polina Davydenko