Wenjing Wang
Hello, my name is Wang Wenjing. I am a student majoring in Serious Games and Virtual Reality. Throughout my studies and life, I have always been curious about “what exactly do people feel?” My creations continuously explore emotional changes and psychological states in interactive experiences and attempt to touch on feelings that are difficult to express directly through game mechanics, space, and narrative.
I hope to transform inexpressible emotions into a world that can be entered, perceived, and experienced, so that the game not only brings fun but also serves as a way for people to understand emotions, face losses, and reconcile with themselves. My graduation project focuses on the emotional experience following a pet’s death, guiding players to follow the light, recall memories, and gradually learn to coexist with loss on a VR journey.
Chasing-Light
“Chasing-Light” is a VR narrative experience that explores the loss of a pet, memories, and emotional release. The project mainly investigates how the “Chasing-Light” mechanism represents the gradual process of an individual facing loss, and what emotional responses this process may trigger in players.
During the experience, players enter a home where they once lived with their pet Milo. Milo, who has passed away, no longer appears in a physical form but instead manifests as a moving light, guiding players to explore different family spaces. Players need to follow Milo, touch the items related to it, and listen to the voices and memories of the family members. Each interaction triggers a small part of Milo’s light to fly towards nearby lamps, lighting up wall, table, floor, string, and desk lamps. These changes gradually link Milo’s memories of waiting, companionship, joy, illness, and loss.
As the story progresses, Milo’s movement slows down, and it begins to maintain a greater distance from the players. The previously warm and familiar atmosphere of the family space gradually turns cold and dim. Lights, sounds, interactive objects, Milo’s behaviour, and spatial changes jointly drive the narrative and guide players through different stages of emotional changes. In the final attic scene, Milo becomes a small light dot that flies towards the moon, and then the moonlight enters the attic. Players no longer chase it but remain in the space, reinterpreting previously discovered memories.
This experience does not portray “release” as forgetting or eliminating sadness; instead, it seeks to express that, even after the loss, the memory and emotional connection between humans and pets can continue in another form. Facing loss does not necessarily mean completely letting go; rather, it is about learning to continue life with these memories.
“Chasing-Light” is a VR narrative experience about pet loss, memory, and emotional acceptance. Players follow Milo, a deceased pet represented by a moving light, through a family home. By touching objects and listening to family memories, they gradually reconnect with Milo’s life, illness, and loss.