#variable state

Website / Steam

The narrative pacing in Virginia is rapid by necessity, with each sequence present in quick succession, and scene locations changing continuously to match this. One way that the game is able to maintain this rapid pace while not overwhelming the player is it’s use of “jump-cuts”, where the player is moved to a new location, typically with some sort of action already in progress. This is especially clever, because the game carefully ensures that these “cuts” only occur while the player is in motion in a specific direction, is static with only camera movement available, or in the middle of a cutscene.

Last Stop - Reveal Trailer

A major consideration held during the wordless interactive narrative of Virginia was indicating emotion through facial expressions and body language. So much of an individual plot point depended on how characters reacted to the players presence- as such, even incidental characters are clearly defined visually, typically with specific postures, facial cues, and repeated tics.

The lighting in each scene of Virginia is built with a shader that tends to let shadows and highlights bleed into/around each other. This allows the low-poly visuals of the game to feel fairly dynamic, and softens them overall- but still allows the dynamic lighting to fill the scene with specific tones.

Website / Steam

Website / Steam

Virginia #4 (End) - Zara The Silent Gamer