Still Awake

Inspiration

This project started from a very simple question: What happens when you take something everyone does automatically.. blinking and turn it into a rule? Blinking is involuntary, unconscious, and unavoidable. Making it the failure condition creates tension without adding complex mechanics. I was interested in building something that feels less like a traditional game and more like a psychological experience—an interaction that exists only while the user is actively present and aware.

The visual poem and distorted imagery are meant to reinforce that feeling: you’re not playing as much as you’re enduring.

What it does

The project is a minimal blink-based survival lens: The user’s goal is simply not to blink The game ends unpredictably, based on a randomized time window Failure triggers a visual and textual response The score represents how long the user managed to stay “awake” There is intentionally no visible timer or explicit countdown. The uncertainty is part of the experience.

How we built it

The lens was built in Lens Studio, using: Face tracking to detect blinking A lightweight game loop written in JavaScript A randomized time limit to prevent players from optimizing behavior Text-based feedback layered over a visual poem I kept the system deliberately minimal: No heavy UI No explicit start screen No traditional HUD elements The poem acts as the environment, while the logic runs quietly in the background.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was not technical complexity, but restraint. Early versions tried to add timers, start messages, and UI layers. These additions consistently conflicted with the visual poem and weakened the emotional tone. Through iteration (and a lot of breaking and rebuilding), I learned that the project worked best when I stopped trying to explain itself.

Another challenge was working within the constraints of Lens Studio’s rendering and UI system. Managing text, layering, and visibility without breaking stability required careful simplification rather than adding more logic.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Designing a complete interactive experience using a single, intuitive rule Turning an involuntary human action into a meaningful game mechanic Maintaining conceptual clarity by resisting unnecessary UI and features Building a stable, working lens within tight technical constraints Creating an experience that feels intentional, not instructional

What we learned

What I Learned Less interaction can create more tension Not every experience benefits from visible feedback or instructions Randomness can feel more human than precision Stability and clarity matter more than feature count Most importantly, I learned to recognize when a concept is asking for restraint, not polish.

What's next for Still Awake

Future iterations of Still Awake could explore deeper variations of awareness and failure without increasing complexity. Possible directions include adaptive difficulty that responds to user behavior, subtle audiovisual shifts as tension increases, or multiple poetic outcomes based on how the experience ends. Rather than expanding the interface, the focus would remain on refining the emotional arc.. how anticipation, uncertainty, and failure are communicated with minimal feedback. The goal is not to turn the project into a traditional game, but to further explore interactive presence as a design space.

Built With

• javascript
• snap-lens-studio-?-for-building-and-publishing-the-lens-javascript-?-for-game-logic