We collaborated with the BBC Science, BBC Learning & BBC Digital Storytelling to create an epic 15-minute immersive virtual reality experience. Home forms part of BBC Learning’s ongoing mission to fire the imaginations of the next generation of scientists. The experience took six month to complete from conception to delivery.

The VR experience premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest and has been touring the UK. it will be released on Steam later in the year.

The experience is developed in Unreal Engine 4 to push at the highest possible visual fidelity and is accompanied with treated, spatial audio. The team worked with script writer Marco Crivellari to develop the narrative & consulted with ESA experts and Astronauts to understand more about the reality of life in space.

The interactive experience sees you traversing the space station, journeying on the Canadarm and jetpacking back to safety. It also encompasses randomised views of the earth and atmospheric phenomenon, enabling users to come away with different experiences.

To make the experience as realistic and immersive as possible, the team explored beyond just VR headsets & hand controllers. Bluetooth heart rate monitors that feedback into the experience were integrated, recreating the sound of your own heartbeat acoustically treated. This was combined with an integrated live mic which relayed the sound of their own breathing. The ambient sound is spatial and creates the claustrophobia of the astronaut’s helmet and the unnerving sounds of your own body and your space suit's life support system. A gaming chair is also used to provide haptic feedback and to increase the level of immersion. Finally for selected live viewings we incorporate a live Voice Actor who plays a key role and is able to personalise and ad-lib on the script, conversing with the player.