Ikkuma

• 

  Character

• 

  Polar Bear

Inspiration

The motivation of this work is making an immersive experience to help my audience to better understand the topic of climate change and its real impact on earth. While initially portrayed as a story of brutality and revenge, the narrative slowly pans out to show the futility of these personal struggles against the very real forces of nature and manmade climate change. Ikkuma is the Inuvialuit word for fire, a central element to this work and a stark visual contrast against the whites, greys, and blues of the frozen wastes.

What it does

A VR headset puts you in the mind of an orphan, witness to your mother’s brutal execution and alone in a world of crumbling ice. The players must learn to tame the fire (ikkuma) in their hearts and the hunger in their belly if they hope to survive the harsh yet fragile Arctic tundra.

How we built it

We built it with Unity and Tilt Brush, Tilt Brush, Medium, Adobe series, etc.

Challenges we ran into

This is a project I started a while ago, unfortunately, due to the lack of support, I find it hard to continue working on the project on my own. I want to find someone who is interested in the topic of traditional culture/environment change. Now, the project only has some simple interactions and teleportation. I plan to find more collaborators and researchers from different backgrounds to work on some innovative interactive mechanisms.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I feel that the visual contrast between fire and ice presents a striking representation of the changing climate, and by using the medium of VR we can create fantastic scenes that compose this contrast in unique ways.

What we learned

Even though this project is a fiction-based story, written by me, I will say it is not 100% baseless as I have learned a lot of interesting facts about Inuvialuit culture. The history of the Inuvialuit and their ancestors in the Beaufort region and Mackenzie Delta is long and complex. It extends far back in time to the arrival of the Thule Inuit, and perhaps even to their predecessors, the Dorset people. Inuvialuit have deep roots in the territory and a resulting vast, accumulated knowledge of its geography, fauna, weather, and ice conditions. This knowledge has made it possible for Inuvialuit to find food, create clothing, and enjoy a vibrant intellectual and emotional life for generations.

What's next for Ikkuma

The end goal for Ikkuma is to create a narrative experience that lets the players take on the role of our central “orphan” character, abandoned in the arctic tundra. I’d like this experience to be visceral but also educational, and I intend to do that by giving players a first person perspective of the impact of global warming on the North pole. The players will learn Inuit traditional knowledge (Qaujimajatuqangnit) by watching, listening to, and harvesting on the land, ice and water

Built With

• english
• github
• oculus
• tiltbrush
• unity