Paper Beast is a virtual reality game that turns big data into a peaceful and ethereal world.

The Japanese art of origami is inextricably linked to mathematics, as Robert J. Lang has documented in his 2003 book Secrets of origami design. The art form is based on the transformation of a flat sheet of paper into a rough but naturally elegant representation of the element, the most illustrious example being perhaps that of the crane in paper. For the legendary game designer Eric Chahi, known for Another world and Heart of darkness, paper is intrinsically comparable to the hypnotic and mysterious world of big data. To communicate this, Chahi formed a studio called Pixel Reef in 2016 and began working on his latest project: Exclusive PlayStation VR. Beast of paper.

"The idea came after the desire to create a game about wildlife," I told Shahi by phone. A few weeks ago, I demoed Beast of paper at Gamescom 2019, traveling through her wonderfully rich world of virtual reality, where data has helped to create a unique ecosystem by recompiling itself into an artificial life.

In Beast of paperyou play as a virtual reality user exploring this derived world of data, which means that the game is an experience, even a meta. From what I 've played, your task is to discover all kinds of strange anomalies formed from blocks of data, some of which are primitive yet sensitive paper beasts. The fact that none of these elements makes sense right away is what makes it special: it's a totally strange world of code, but it seems strangely alive. In fact, he is living.

Chahi explains that he devised the basic idea for Beast of paper a lot of time before starting to develop the game. For him, the idea revolved around his head "like a rotating satellite that has to connect things together". The modern world sees an abundance of information existing in the virtual space, constantly bouncing from one point to another. "Today we have a lot of data everywhere and we are too much in the information flow, like email," he says. "There is so much information everywhere."

Chahi knew this could be an innovative and intriguing thematic base for a game, but he did not know how to realize his vision and connect the points. From the first prototype, he juxtaposed paper and voluminous data to create a world full of unique flora and fauna. "It's not realistic, but there is a link to the data," he told me. "The first use of paper is to write on it, which strongly links it to the data, [because] it's a link with the information. So, why not create a universe from Big Data? "

Chahi had a starting point, but he knew that he needed to push the boundaries if he wanted to successfully create a self-sustaining data-driven ecosystem. "When you're in the game, it may sound a bit unrealistic," he says. "But there is a kind of glitch or anomaly everywhere, like the cloud or later in the sky and in the storm. And these animals are made of paper or strange materials. In the game, you should feel the pressure of Big Data, which is born from the data. But sometimes, there is an intrusion into this world, which is not always super cool for these animals. "

But soon, poetry within Beast of paper becomes surprisingly clear. Conceptually, it is an experimental project in game design and philosophy of AI, but it is also deeply rooted in the way we view nature in contemporary life. As Chahi says, "It's hard to get out of the flow [of data]"That's why the juxtaposition of the real and digital worlds affects so quickly and poignantly.

However, it is more of a thought experiment than a prediction. "It's a metaphorical idea," says Chahi. "I think if it happened, it would not be like Beast of paper. It would be something very different. If something came out of the consciousness of a computer and could capture some of what we put in it, we can imagine an image. [of that]. But we do not know. I think that with AI, we will be very surprised in 20 years or even less. We continue to learn. It's sometimes very scary. "

In the world of Beast of papera plethora of curiosities and anomalies exist in harmony with each other. However, a particular creature, who guides you into this strangely sublime sphere, stands out among the others not only as conscious, but particularly intelligent. You can manipulate the smaller animals, taking them with your meta-powers while they turn into a ragdoll state, before slowly replacing them so that they resume their grazing on pieces of bodily data. . But this larger creature can not be controlled, only understood.

"It's super mysterious," says Chahi, because that creature is the first link between the Beast of paper universe and the player. This is the most conscious creature of the player. why is this the case? It's a mystery. But later in the adventure, you will meet this creature again. Cryptic, but such is the nature of a microcosm born of animated data of a strange and unforeseen life.

Chahi wants players to discover the joy of discovery as this creature greets them timidly and begins to present his digital realm. He wants those who venture into his world to recognize that he is imbued with his own miracles of life, both mysterious and peaceful and, at times, distressing.

"The most important thing is the interaction with Paper Beast's the universe, feeling that he's alive, that he's really autonomous and that these creatures have their own behaviors, "he told me. "It's like the pleasure of discovering a world not only by seeing it, but by interacting with it, touching it and experiencing something unique and exceptional. Sometimes, in life, we go to the mountains and the weather is nice. Then, suddenly, there is a storm, it rains and you have to go somewhere. But it's a surprise. And when you remember that, it can be a good memory because you have experienced something intense and beautiful at the same time.

In the eyes of Chahi, this classic idea of ​​sublimity is at the heart of Beast of paper. "Some games are poetic," he says, "but Beast of paper is poetic in every way. However, the game of Chahi is literally anchored in poetry as it is built with an engine designed not only to create it, but to set a precedent for all its purpose. "There is Unity, and within Unity, there is another engine," says Chahi. "The one we developed because we did our own physics, and 95% of the rendering is our rendering. It's an engine in an engine. "

The main reason why Chahi designed his own engine was to make Beast of paper compatible with VR systems. According to him, virtual reality requires a considerable amount of tweaks and optimizations that his team could not achieve with Unity itself "because Unity is a black box, and sometimes we can not do everything we need to do . " poetry strikes at home. "Internally, we call [the engine] Atoll, "he explains. "We named it Atoll because we wanted the development environment to be peaceful. And it's the same philosophy for Pixel Reef. Pixel Reef, as a company, is just a place where creative people feel at peace and create something together. "

For those who do not know it, an atoll is a circular reef encompassing a lagoon where the actual coral often rests on an extinct volcano immersed at the bottom of the water. Interestingly – and, paradoxically, beautifully – the atoll can only exist if a slow rate of erosion allows it to gradually increase its size, combining decadence with growth and destruction with creation. This idea echoed the conclusion of my demo in which a cataclysmic storm began to inhale blocks of data into an unknown abyss. To save you from danger, your mysterious guide leads you into a dimly lit cavern before locking you into the darkness by pushing a rock in front of the entrance, locking you away from the storm. It's completely non-verbal, but incredibly raw and emotional, which creates a connection between you and the unorthodox virtual world of Beast of paper.

"It's always a pleasure to talk about your games," Chahi told me before saying our respective farewells. "If you have the time, I have the time." His separating words perfectly symbolize his passion for this incredibly strange world of data that promotes life. Your meta performance as a PSVR player is designed to challenge your feelings about real life. It's a world where the code becomes a kind of life force. And in the end, the boundaries between reality and big data begin to fade and what was once artificial becomes real, powerful and deeply affecting.

Beast of paper will launch later this year for PlayStation VR.