Hampshire College Professor Jess Erion Is Narrative Designer of a New Virtual Reality Game

According to one reviewer, “Hotel Infinity is a standout example of true room-scale VR, and a must-own for anyone interested in understanding the potential of this medium . . . What a revelation of a game this is.” [Room-scale virtual reality experiences allow players to move freely within an area of play as their real-life movements are reflected within the game.] Erion has also worked as a senior writer, editor, and narrative designer on several other games, among them Red Thread Games’ Dustborn, Carnegie Hall’s TuneCrafter, and Six to Start’s All Hands to Freedom.

Please tell us about Hotel Infinity and how you came to work on the project.

Hotel Infinity is an immersive room-scale virtual reality, or VR, game where a player navigates through a surreal hotel designed with non-Euclidian geometry, solving puzzles and unraveling mysteries. I had admired Manifold Garden, a puzzle game made by some of the Studio Chyr team, since it was released in 2019. When I saw the opportunity to work with the same people on a VR project, I jumped at the chance.

What does narrative design entail?

My students will recognize this description: Narrative design is a discipline concerned with storytelling through systems. In my experience, it varies greatly from project to project. For Hotel Infinity, the systems were highly visual and environmental, so I worked closely with artists and level designers to tell a story through the objects the player can interact with in the hotel. When I work on longer action-adventure games, narrative design takes a different shape, and I spend more time writing dialogue and creating satisfying choices for players to engage with.

How did you get into video game design?

The old-fashioned way: by bothering my brother while he played Legend of Zelda games. I enjoyed games as a kid, and as I later began properly studying literature and media, I came to realize the potential that games had as a medium for creating meaning and telling stories. In grad school, I was lucky to learn from the brilliant designers and scholars at the NYU Game Center, and from there I was able to turn improv games and visual novels into a career.

How did you come to teach at Hampshire? What classes do you teach?

Hampshire’s student-designed curriculum and holistic approach to education drew me in right away, particularly as a game designer. The flexibility and modularity of the academic structure here really lends itself to a playful (and even gamified) pedagogy. I teach a combination of studio classes, focused on strengthening students’ game design skills, and discussion-based courses, focused on media analysis and the culture of game development.