dakai

Dakāi is a non-linear video game about exploration, reflection, and emotional healing. It gives players the chance to explore a carefully curated environment and ask questions about their journey, and explore their inner worlds while they travel through a virtual one. 

The world of the game takes the form of a forest walk, drawing from the concept of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing”, the reflective meditative practice of connecting with nature to heal ourselves mentally and physically. While the popularity of shinrin-yoku has flourished in modern times to combat screen burnout, Dakāi translates the concept into a virtual environment, to challenge the idea that it is the screens themselves that are causing the burnout, and might instead be the content we engage with. The forest world also has interactable objects strewn throughout the world to provide prompts for reflection and the opportunity to think back on what it means to survive. 

Players can use either a controller or a keyboard and mouse to engage with objects and explore within the game. 

The work plays loosely with the format of a game. There are no scores, no timers, nothing to measure your progress as you travel within the landscape, a forced slow pace, and the only progress markers being your own feeling of progress and exploring your own past. The project draws on personal experience with trauma and uses these ideas to explore how we measure healing from emotional pain.