Sophia Sibille

ERROR: BUGS FOUND was a project made for my 4th and last year at Glasgow School of Art. This Virtual Reality game was inspired by the game Fruit Ninja, pop-up notifications from the early 2000’s and the Matrix. It’s a game about the player being trapped in the game and “de-bugging” the game by destroying the bugs flying towards them with a giant cursor that they hold.

The project allowed me to practice my 3D modelling and texturing skills, making all of the textures, 3D models and 2D images myself. Most of the sound was created by me as well.

The way the game works allows for a competitive fun experience, with scores shown to the player after the bugs eventually defeat the player.

This project allowed me to utilise the skills I have learnt throughout the years and has further developed my game development skills. I found the project to be fun to work on, asking for feedback throughout and adapting accordingly.

For my 4th year dissertation I focused on liminal spaces, and the emotional reaction evoked by said liminal spaces. The word liminal comes from the word “threshold”, and liminal spaces are spaces in limbo, between one use to another. Some examples of liminal spaces are empty car parks at night, or empty airports without airplanes and people. During Covid 19, according to Google Trends, the interest in liminal spaces spiked quickly, with people stuck at home, places that used to be full of people seemed to have been frozen, with schools, airports, shopping centers all empty.

For the project part of my dissertation I created a 3D pool themed liminal space, got people to experience the environment and discuss their emotional response to the project. The responses were a mixed bag, with half finding the place comforting, whilst the other half finding it uneasy and even frightening.

I made the 3D walkable liminal space with 3Ds Max, Photoshop and Blender, using past skills and developing new skills throughout.