The Playground
Timeline: 10-12/2022
Category: Virtual Reality, Game Design
Role: Group member (collaborate with Yuan Cao)
Tools & Technology: Unreal Engine 5, VR Headsets, Adobe Photoshop, Cinema 4D, Virtual Environment
Venue: New Forms in Media class
The Playground is a virtual reality experience built in Unreal Engine 5. The work draws on urban myths about missing children and on the psychology of childhood trauma, building a small town where playful surfaces conceal darker undercurrents and players uncover the narrative by wandering, looking, and noticing rather than by direct instruction. The space unfolds in three chapters, each staging a different form of lure aimed at children: a food cart whose cheerful candy hides unsettling traces, a slide surrounded by lifeless mannequins, and a hidden tunnel ending in a looming "television monster" that reflects on how media captures and manipulates young attention. The facilities take visual cues from Egon Møller-Nielsen's abstract sculptural playgrounds, holding the tension between innocence and unease in the form of the environment itself. I contributed to environment design, 3D modeling, and the spatial choreography of the narrative across the scenes. The piece treats VR more as a site for emotional embodiment, asking how spatial design, ambient sound, and slow discovery can become tools for engaging difficult subjects like fear, trauma, and complicity.
Documentation (2022)

Concept Arts
















