OMNIA
Project Type
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Narrative VR Experience
In a future city where a superintelligent AI has erased emotion in the name of social stability, players explore a controlled city, an abandoned school, and an underground resistance base—recovering fragments of human feeling through interaction and environmental storytelling.
Roles
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Art Director
Character & Interaction Designer
Environment Artist
Story Co-Writer
Recognition
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The Rookies 2025
Rank A — Immersive Media
Highly Recommended — Game of the Year & Rookie of the Year, Immersive Media
Tools
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Unreal Engine 5, Blueprints, Niagara
Maya, Blender, Substance Painter
Gameplay Video
Story Trailer
Unique Feature
While OMNIA includes moments of dialogue, its core narrative unfolds through metaphor, symbolism, and atmosphere. Each environment is treated as a protagonist in its own right—a living system of emotional cues, sacred remnants, and hidden meanings. Players uncover the story by interacting with space itself through light, sound, movement, and silence.
More than a game world, OMNIA is an experiment in narrative design—a quiet exchange between memory and matter, where story emerges through resonance rather than instruction.
More than a game world, OMNIA is an experiment in narrative design—a quiet exchange between memory and matter, where story emerges through resonance rather than instruction.
My Contribution
I led art direction and co-developed the narrative across three VR levels. I designed and modeled the main characters, built the city from the ground up, and reimagined existing environment kits as a story-driven school and underground resistance base through level design, lighting, VFX, and environmental storytelling.
I also designed gameplay interactions and VR spatial flow, prototyped interaction, lighting, and narrative cues in UE5 Blueprints, and produced the trailer and in-game cutscenes.
I also designed gameplay interactions and VR spatial flow, prototyped interaction, lighting, and narrative cues in UE5 Blueprints, and produced the trailer and in-game cutscenes.
1. The City
Visual & Spatial Design
I built the city from white-box layout through lighting, worldbuilding, and asset integration. Avoiding typical cyberpunk density, I developed a restrained visual language of sacred minimalism—brutalist forms, muted greys and blues, controlled warm accents, and purposeful negative space. Broken screens and dead terminals reveal traces of a failed resistance.
I built the city from white-box layout through lighting, worldbuilding, and asset integration. Avoiding typical cyberpunk density, I developed a restrained visual language of sacred minimalism—brutalist forms, muted greys and blues, controlled warm accents, and purposeful negative space. Broken screens and dead terminals reveal traces of a failed resistance.
Interaction Design
I designed key VR interactions, including breaking a barricade, activating a platform by throwing a brick, and proximity-based shifts in light, sound, and VFX. I also prototyped Blueprint logic for reactive environmental and narrative cues.
I designed key VR interactions, including breaking a barricade, activating a platform by throwing a brick, and proximity-based shifts in light, sound, and VFX. I also prototyped Blueprint logic for reactive environmental and narrative cues.
Before
After
Before
After
2. Willowdale School
Visual & Spatial Design
I transformed an existing environment kit into a story-driven school shaped by memory and loss. Redesigned layouts, faded amber tones, props, materials, lighting, and VFX evoke a place frozen shortly before its abandonment.
I transformed an existing environment kit into a story-driven school shaped by memory and loss. Redesigned layouts, faded amber tones, props, materials, lighting, and VFX evoke a place frozen shortly before its abandonment.
Interaction Design
Players restore an unfinished school performance by reactivating the electricity and returning a missing speaker and projector. Each action changes the environment, culminating in a particle sequence, a custom cutscene, and the reveal of the Smile Token—a representation of joy returning to OMNIA.
Players restore an unfinished school performance by reactivating the electricity and returning a missing speaker and projector. Each action changes the environment, culminating in a particle sequence, a custom cutscene, and the reveal of the Smile Token—a representation of joy returning to OMNIA.
Base environment kit by MacKenzie Shirk
3. Underground Resistance Base
Visual & Spatial Design
I reimagined a subway environment as a hidden resistance base, restructuring its layout and player flow around secrecy and rebellion. Torn posters, flickering signage, volumetric fog, new materials, lighting, and VFX distinguish it from OMNIA’s controlled city.
I reimagined a subway environment as a hidden resistance base, restructuring its layout and player flow around secrecy and rebellion. Torn posters, flickering signage, volumetric fog, new materials, lighting, and VFX distinguish it from OMNIA’s controlled city.
Interaction Design
Rather than relying on combat, the level centers on protecting the captured robot R0v-7. Players observe surveillance feeds, respond to resistance members, and make nonviolent choices that build trust. These decisions are reflected in the Heart Crystal, which grows as OMNIA begins to understand empathy.
Rather than relying on combat, the level centers on protecting the captured robot R0v-7. Players observe surveillance feeds, respond to resistance members, and make nonviolent choices that build trust. These decisions are reflected in the Heart Crystal, which grows as OMNIA begins to understand empathy.
Base environment kit by Erman Arts
Before
After
AI-Assisted Character Prototype
Jitter is a hyperactive non-human agent developed for an ongoing experimental extension of OMNIA. This prototype explores whether generative tools could shorten the path from an initial visual direction to an animated real-time character. I used Midjourney for early concept exploration and Tripo AI to generate a first-pass base mesh, then manually cleaned the model, built the rig and animation in Blender, and tested it in Unreal Engine.
AI Concept Exploration — Midjourney
Base Mesh Generation — Tripo AI
Tripo AI converted the selected image into a first-pass 3D mesh. I treated the result as an editable starting point rather than a finished asset.
Manual Cleanup, Rigging & Animation — Blender
I cleaned the generated mesh and prepared it for deformation, then built a custom rig and created a short personality-driven animation for real-time testing.
Real-Time Integration — Unreal Engine
Other character exploration
Concept variations
Real-time test in UE