Everybody wants a piece of the metaverse—even if the exact definition of what it is remains a subject of contention. Whether your entry point into 2022’s buzziest technology is through ecommerce, social networking, or gaming, the seismic jump in how virtual technologies are changing these experiences is ushering in an exciting era of discovery for watchers, gamers, and creators.
Here at Dark Slope, we’ve been thinking metaverse since before it was cool. Like most creators, we’ve always daydreamed about making things that leap off the screen, experiences that users can be fully immersed in and interact with in ways they’ve never thought possible. Now, as the VR industry doubles down on trying to make its hardware less expensive and more accessible, we are all working together to bring those dreams to life: whether it’s a VR gaming experience that turns platforming on its head or a virtual production set-up that lets producers realise their vision without leaving the soundstage, the experiences the metaverse is introducing to a mainstream audience has been the foundation of our work for years.
Our vision for the metaverse is a competitive, collaborative platform that allows creators to craft their own universe and embrace new ways of telling their story.
We aren’t content to sit and wait while emerging technology catches up with our ideas. Instead, we’re focusing on how metaverse technology can be used to create experiences and tools that are adaptable to the moment and endlessly modifiable. We’re designing games that are made to be modulars, allowing for players to fully embrace the freedom of an immersive 3D space and invent creative ways to play. We’re building games that aren’t just technically impressive and finely crafted, we’re also building for communities of speedrunners and storytellers to explore.
In television, we’re using Hyperreality TV to bring virtual reality and the metaverse to unscripted TV. Leveraging non-scripted formats and in-studio filming with VR-enhanced animation and virtual worlds, we’re providing the stage for boundless exploration. Our virtual production expertise allows creators to leverage the Unreal Game Engine for environmental design, motion capture, and animation. This technology lets productions bypass the limits of location, budget, and timelines to create the immersive worlds their stories need.
No matter how advanced our technology becomes, no matter how embedded digital experiences become in our daily lives, it will always lag behind what our imaginations are capable of. This is what motivates us to push past the hype surrounding technology like the metaverse, instead we try and create for that space where the tools we use inspire us to create something new. We may never catch up with our imaginations, and may never be able to create all the games we want to play or all the stories we want to tell, but we come to work every day ready to try.