Overview
Look-based horror mechanics in VR
Don't Look Away is a solo-developed VR survival horror experience built around a single, high-stakes mechanic: enemies are frozen in place as long as you maintain eye contact. The moment you look away — to check your surroundings, to navigate the environment, or out of reflex — they move.
The project explores how VR's unique affordance of head-tracked gaze can be weaponized as the core loop of a horror game, creating tension through a mechanic that directly conflicts with natural human instinct.
Problem
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Process
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Outcome
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