hearth-hearted storyteller
stop viewing this on mobilehearth-hearted storyteller
multimedia dabbler from singapore who writes a bunch of stuff and thinks about even more nonsense. i’m particularly passionate about interactive performances. give me money so that i can afford a proper domain name.<a href="https://vforvesta.itch.io/how-far-weve-come" target="_blank">How Far We’ve Come: The Boundless Expanse (2021)</a>
The biggest new adventure RPG that will probably make you question what an adventure RPG is. I was the lead programmer and writer, and also composed original music for the game.
<a href="https://vforvesta.neocities.org/what_art_thou_bidding.html" target="_blank">What Art Thou Bidding? (2020)</a>
An interactive hypertext response to //What Is Thy Bidding//, a theatre performance during The Substation's Septfest 2020 Fringe. It explores content warnings, the gig economy, and the crushing weight of surviving and creating art under capitalism. Solo project.
<a href="https://vforvesta.neocities.org/anxiety/index.html" target="_blank">Anxiety Simulator (2019)</a>
A hypertext game about trying to accomplish the simplest of tasks when you have anxiety. Made in HypeDyn. Solo project.
<a href="https://vforvesta.neocities.org/breathe_as_you_bloom.html" target="_blank">Breathe as you Bloom (2019)</a>
A narrative-based exploration game about a young man returning to his childhood farm. Made in Bitsy. Solo project.
<a href="https://vforvesta.itch.io/aural-space?secret=V9BIVLkJSINAlox0BKpvWKDTFzg">Aural Space (2019)</a>
A procedurally generated HTML game about flying through space and making music. Solo project.
<a href="https://ryanicale.itch.io/apop" target="_blank">aPOPcalypse (2018)</a>
A colour-based shooter where you fight off a diverse horde of monsters at the end of the world. I was the lead game designer and writer, and also composed original music for the game.
<a href="https://vforvesta.neocities.org/thirst.html" target="_blank">thirst (2020)</a>
A hypertext Twine piece that curates various moments from pieces of media, associating them with Mary Oliver’s poem //Thirst//, alongside originally composed music. Solo project. Play here.<u>[[2KNIGHT TILL DAWN (2021)]]</u>
A narrative role-playing tactics game for two. Card-based chess with all the operatic drama of fanfiction tropes. I was the lead game designer and writer.
<a href="https://vforvesta.itch.io/how-to-graduate" target="_blank">how to graduate (2021)</a>
An anthology of 7x2 lyric games about undergraduate life. Solo project.
<u>[[Planting Seeds (2018)]]</u>
A competitive two-player tactical board game, where your goal is to be the first to plant 23 seeds across the board, aided with special-powered seeds to shake things up. I was the lead game designer and writer.<a href="http://hotpottalk.sg/" target="_blank">HOT POT TALK: The Measure of a Meal (2021)</a>
An online exhibition featuring four multimedia, hypertext stories centering around food in Singapore. I was the sole programmer, in charge of putting together the website in Twine based on the media and materials given to me, as well as aiding in web hosting solutions.
<u>[[Dreamcatcher <3 (2021)]]</u>
A speculative design project using Arduino electronics. It reimagines a dreamcatcher into an artifact used like a dating app, that subliminally influences its users while they are asleep through audiovisual effects that will nudge them towards their matched partners when awake.
<u>[[Move Mirror (2020)]]</u>
A prototype exercise mirror that uses motion tracking and machine learning to become a personalised AI coach, done as part of a UX design project. I was the producer.I was a Contributing Writer at RICE Media in the latter half of 2019. The following are a selection of pieces I wrote.
<a href="https://www.ricemedia.co/culture-events-arts-mental-health-acting-mad/" target="_blank">Are All ‘Artsy’ Singaporeans Struggling With Mental Health? (2019)</a>
A preview piece for The Necessary Stage’s //Acting Mad//, about artists and their relationship with mental health.
<b><a href="https://www.ricemedia.co/culture-life-sentosa-cove-lonely/" target="_blank">Is Sentosa Cove A Metaphor For How Lonely It Is At the Top? (2019)</a></b>
I kind of trespass into Singapore’s most exclusive neighbourhood to find out what the fuck is going on there.
<a href="https://www.ricemedia.co/culture-people-male-virgins-late-20s/" target="_blank">In Their Late 20s, and Still A Virgin. Yep, These Singaporean Men Exist (2019)</a>
Self explanatory. I’m still filled with puerile pride at the photoshoot for this piece which I provided creative direction for.
<a href="https://www.ricemedia.co/culture-life-braiding-sweetgrass-relationship-reciprocity/" target="_blank">We’re Taught That Most Relationships Are Transactional, So We Treat Nature the Same Way (2019)</a>
Yes this is sponsored content for an audiobook company but I got to do a book review on why reciprocity is fundamental to our humanity and the earth, so win-win?
<a href="https://www.ricemedia.co/culture-life-broken-economics-content-creation/" target="_blank">Why Is There So Much Sponsored Content? The Broken Economics of Content Creation (2019)</a>
I hate the current economics of “creating content”, and in this piece analyse why the media landscape has basically become secondhand advertising, and propose alternative possibilities for sustainable creative work.<a href="https://vforvesta.neocities.org/petrichor.pdf" target="_blank">Petrichor (2020)</a>
A short story about a swarm of bees in the shape of a human struggling to play baseball in the rain.
<a href="https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/15629007" target="_blank">nyeusi | fararen | ብናማ | grẹy (2018)</a>
Four colours, four short stories, four years after Ferguson. A personal introspection about black lives.
<a href="https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/9367745/chapters/21206960" target="_blank">Soundscape (Incomplete, 2017-2018)</a>
A 170,000 word crossover fanfiction epic about a group of girls brought into a different world while playing a game.I mean I have many academic essays I’m proud of but none of you want to read that so.<b><u>The Mountain (2017)</u></b>
Composed to form the backing music to a monologue during a student theatre performance of Eleanor Wong’s //Exit//.
<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1100438701%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-x6By3AL4vXp&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/vforvesta" title="vesta" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">vesta</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/vforvesta/the-mountain-final-cut/s-x6By3AL4vXp" title="The Mountain (Final Cut)" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">The Mountain (Final Cut)</a></div>
<b><u>experiments in synthetic nylon (2020)</u><b>
Scored as a backing track for a podcast assignment. I think it’s funky.
<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1100438860%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-i0YYZS9mMQo&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/vforvesta" title="vesta" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">vesta</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/vforvesta/experiments-with-synthetic-nylon/s-i0YYZS9mMQo" title="experiments with synthetic nylon" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">experiments with synthetic nylon</a></div>[[about]]
[[digital games]]
[[physical games]]
[[design]]
[[editorial]]
[[fiction]]
[[essays]]
[[music]]
2KNIGHT TILL DAWN was designed to balance between competitive and cooperative play. While the base cycle of the game was a sort of card-based tactical chess which pits both players against each other, there is also the meta-layer where players are telling a story together through the mechanics. By roleplaying as these two knights in a fight to the death, thinking about how they gain resources and deal damage, alongside narrative prompts drawn from a deck, intentional play and serendipity collide to create a novel narrative experience each time.
Excerpts from the playbook:
<img id="imgst" src="images/2k_1.jpg">
<img id="imgst" src="images/2k_2.jpg">
Screenshots of play:
<img id="imgst" src="images/2k_3.png">
<img id="imgst" src="images/2k_4.png">Excerpts from the playbook:
<img id="imgst" src="images/ps1.jpg">
<img id="imgst" src="images/ps2.jpg">
<img id="imgst" src="images/ps3.jpg">
<img id="imgst" src="images/ps4.jpg">Preliminary sketches:
<img id="imgst" src="images/d3_0.jpg">
Prototype:
<img id="imgst3" src="images/d3_1.jpg"> <img id="imgst2" src="images/d3_2.gif">
<img id="imgst" src="images/d3_3.jpg">
<img id="imgst" src="images/d3_4.png">Low-fi Prototype Demo Video:
<iframe width="960" height="540" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hBYwgc6WLNo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Excerpt from Storyboard:
<img id="imgst" src="images/mm2.jpg">