Swallowtail Butterfly VR Game Design

How would you feel if you were a butterfly seeking to live in a desperate world of chaos? Inspired by the Japanese film 'Swallowtail Butterfly' and the game Cyberpunk 2077, I created a VR game that requires users to survive through three artificial crises. It allows people to think about what they truly need in a dissipated world.

Inspiration

Swallowtail Butterfly (スワロウテイル) is a 1996 Japanese crime film directed by Shunji Iwai, starring Hiroshi Mikami, pop singer Chara, and Ayumi Ito. The film is set in Tokyo at an unspecified point in the near future when the Japanese yen has become the strongest currency in the world. This attracts an influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, to work in the city. The immigrants give the city the nickname Yen Town (円都). The Japanese natives, however, despite the nickname, and in retribution, call the immigrants by the homophone Yen Thieves (円盗), anglicised as "Yentowns" in the film's English subtitles.

Context & Concept

This film inspired me to create an immersive game for experiencing through the lens of a butterfly who is lost in the carnival. The goal of this game is to escape the present environment and find the peaceful world that she longs for.

Moodboard

I was inspired by the aesthetic of the game Cyberpunk 2077, and the Japanese Film "Swallowtail butterfly", thus the style consits of the keywords: Neon Light, kyscrapers, etc.

User Flow

The game includes 3 levels, the user needs to survive from 3 crisis, neon crisis(avoiding the falling neon billboard), helicopter crisis(avoiding the shooting) and traffic jam(Don't get hit by a car).