INDUSTRY:
GAME DEVELOPMENT
YEAR:
2025
PROJECT:
THE VERSIONS
TOOL:
UNREAL ENGINE 5.3
Introduction
The Versions is a practice-based research project exploring how meaning shifts when the same event is experienced from different perspectives. Drawing from postcolonial theory, cultural translation, and interactive narrative studies, the project examines how stories are continuously reconstructed through interpretation, memory, and context. Rather than presenting a single objective truth, The Versions proposes that meaning exists as multiple coexisting versions shaped by narrative authority, cultural position, and individual experience. Through an interactive environment built in Unreal Engine 5, players navigate between conflicting perspectives, experiencing firsthand how perception, emotion, and context influence the construction of reality.
《The Versions》是一项基于实践研究的互动叙事项目,探讨同一事件在不同视角下如何产生意义偏移(Meaning Drift)。项目结合后殖民理论、文化翻译以及互动叙事研究,关注故事在传播、记忆与解读过程中不断被重构的现象。作品并不试图寻找唯一正确的真相,而是提出Versioned Truth的概念:意义始终存在于多个并存且相互竞争的叙事版本之中。通过 Unreal Engine 5 构建的互动环境,玩家能够在不同身份与立场之间切换,亲身体验视角、情感与文化背景如何影响我们对现实的理解。



The visual design of The Versions was built around the idea that perspective should not only change the narrative, but also transform the player's perception of space. Each narrative identity — Friend, Lover, and Stranger — was represented through distinct color filters, atmospheric lighting, environmental alterations, and selective visibility of pathways and objects. Rather than functioning as decorative visual effects, these changes operated as narrative mechanisms that directly influenced navigation, interpretation, and player decision-making.
《The Versions》的视觉设计围绕“视角改变现实”的概念展开。朋友、恋人与陌生人三种叙事身份分别对应不同的色彩滤镜、环境氛围以及空间呈现方式。画面变化不仅服务于视觉表现,更直接影响玩家对场景的理解、路径的选择以及叙事线索的获取。通过将视觉语言与游戏机制结合,空间本身成为叙事权力与意义漂移的可视化载体。
One of the main technical challenges was achieving real-time switching between multiple narrative states while maintaining visual coherence and game readability. This project required implementing a dynamic post-processing system, portal-based perspective switching, Niagara visual effects, and environment-related visibility logic within Unreal Engine 5. I invested significant time in iterations to balance atmosphere and usability, ensuring that changes in narrative perspective delivered a strong emotional impact without affecting the player's sense of direction or interactivity. The final system translates theoretical concepts such as meaning drift and narrative authority into a directly perceptible spatial experience.
主要技术挑战之一是在保持视觉连贯性和游戏可读性的同时,实现多个叙事状态之间的实时切换。该项目需要在虚幻引擎5中实现动态后期处理系统、基于传送门的视角切换、Niagara视觉特效以及环境相关的可见性逻辑。我投入了大量迭代时间来平衡氛围和易用性,确保叙事视角的变化在不影响玩家方向感或交互性的前提下,依然能够带来强烈的情感冲击。最终的系统将意义漂移和叙事权威等理论概念转化为可直接感知的空间体验。


The project ultimately demonstrates how interactive media can function as a tool for critical inquiry rather than simply storytelling. By allowing players to experience multiple interpretations of the same event, The Versions challenges the assumption that narratives contain a single stable meaning. Instead, it reveals how perception, cultural context, emotional relationships, and systems of representation continuously shape and reshape reality. Through this process, the project proposes a design framework for visualizing narrative instability, transforming abstract theoretical concepts into embodied and interactive experiences.
该项目最终展示了互动媒体不仅能够讲述故事,更能够成为一种批判性研究工具。通过让玩家亲身经历同一事件的多重解读,《The Versions》挑战了叙事拥有单一稳定意义的传统假设,并揭示感知方式、文化背景、情感关系以及叙事结构如何持续塑造和重构我们对现实的理解。在这一过程中,项目尝试建立一种将“叙事不稳定性”可视化的方法论,使抽象的理论概念转化为可被体验、感知和参与的互动过程。



more to explore / 探索更多
All rights reserved.
Hongwei ©2026



