A Committed Nonlinear Experience

The idea

Explore freely, until something starts chasing you.

The work

You and a friend are journalists. Your friend went into a house where something strange was happening and hasn't come out. You go after them.

It plays in two halves, and the interaction changes between them.

First you explore. You move through the house clicking to open different videos of the place, piecing together what's been going on. No pressure. You look at what you want, in whatever order you want.

Then something starts chasing you, and the decisions become time-sensitive. Hesitate and you've chosen anyway.

That switch is the bit I'm proudest of. It's a simple mechanic, but it changes how the whole thing feels: you're in control while you're the one looking around, and you're not once you're the one being chased. Most interactive video just gives you two buttons and calls it a day.

It's an actual video that's also a game, real footage, not an engine. Shot entirely POV on a camera strapped to a helmet.

I wrote it, designed the character, designed the branching structure, filmed it, edited it to the branches (the loops, the dead ends, the timed-out paths) and designed the site. A friend built it from my spec.

It's also the one that got me a first.