Soundself: A Technodelic uses your voice to craft virtual hallucinations
Vocal gymnastics
I wouldn’t know where to start in acquiring mind-altering substances on the mean streets of Scotland, but I do know where to get them virtually. I checked Steam’s ‘Upcoming’ tab this morning and spotted SoundSelf: A Technodelic, an experience (notagame) that uses your own voice to loop trippy music and visuals to you. I might have to lock the door to my home office, but I’m going to try this when it comes out.
Though it can be played on a pancake screen, I'll be using it in VR. You pop on your headset and start making noise into your mic. The game will start generating music and graphics to compliment your atonal screeching.
VR is at a stage where I want to try everything that’s not a horde mode shooter (unless it’s Alyx). This sort of interaction is intriguing: “Emergent music harmonizes with you, as you navigate through strobing tunnels-of-light, impossible shapes, and deep into a meditative trance.”
It looks basically like a Winamp visualiser. This is from a 2016 version of Soundself.
It’s not that I believe that it’ll relax me, aside from making me lightheaded from being out of breath, but I do want to see what it’s like. I have a fair few VR games installed that have some form of surreal art (The Museum Of Other Realities, to name one) at their core. You can really lose yourself amidst swirling, impossible shapes, but most of the current crop of virtual psychedelics aren't interestingly interactive. You poke or prod at shapes with your controls, or stare at clouds of colours. I want more.
If you don't hear from me after the release date of April 22nd, it's because I've fallen into a VR hole and I'm now a Mobius Craig.