In Bill Viola’s new video game, players who slow down and relinquish control are rewarded with a ‘meditative journey into the soul” with The Night Journey. Narrative inspiration for this project includes the lives and writings of great historical figures including: Rumi, the 13th century Islamic poet and mystic; Ryokan, the 18th century Zen Buddhist poet, Shankara; the 8th century Hindu mystic and commentator on the Upanishads; and St. Anthony, the 3rd century Christian desert father. Visual inspiration has been drawn from the prior works of Bill Viola, which afford reference for 3D objects, scenes and presences in the world; provide textures for the landscape and objects; and permeate the world itself, creating a bridge between the “real” and the “imagined,” memory and experience.
The Night Journey, an experimental video game by Bill Viola, offers something quite different from the fast-paced, shoot-’em-up world of a typical video game. There are no aliens or terrorists taking aim, and if players’ on-screen surrogates run too quickly in trying to advance to the game’s next level, the landscape smears. “It’s a game that rewards you for slowing down and for introspection,” says Viola, 59, a pioneer in the medium of video art for more than 35 years. “You’re alone and you’re not even told why you’re there. You just fall out of the sky into the middle of this amazing landscape with mountains, sea, desert, and forest, and go wherever you want,” he explains. “The more you do things mindfully, the more is revealed to you. – from Artnews
The Night Journey is a video game/art project based on the universal story of an individual mystic’s journey toward enlightenment.
Visual inspiration for The Night Journey is drawn from the prior works of Bill Viola. Narrative inspiration comes from the lives and writings of great historical figures including: Rumi, the 13th century Islamic poet and mystic; Ryokan, the 18th century Zen Buddhist poet; St. John of the Cross, the 16th century Spanish mystic and poet; and Plotinus, the 3rd century philosopher. The interactive design attempts to evoke in the player’s mind a sense of the archetypal journey of enlightenment through the “mechanics” of the game experience – i.e. the choices and actions of the player during the game.
The player’s voyage through The Night Journey takes them through a poetic landscape, a space that has more reflective and spiritual qualities than geographical ones. The core mechanic in the game is the act of traveling and reflecting rather than reaching certain destinations – the trip along a path of enlightenment.
The game is being developed with video game technologies, but attempts to stretch the boundaries of what game experiences may communicate with its unique visual design, content and mechanics. The team has created a set of custom post-processing techniques for the 3D environment that evoke the sense of “explorable video,” integrating the imagery of Bill Viola’s prior work into the game world at both a technical and creative level.
– from here