The Sisyphus Machine

An exhibition of the next must-have appliance for your life․This VRChat world creates a fictional sales pitch for a machine that takes care of the mundane tasks that make up daily life. Wishful thinking. But in theory, the machine can spin forever, somewhere in the metaverse.

For this VR world, I implemented:

  • World design, including environmental storytelling aspects
  • Interaction design
  • Asset design
  • Asset animations

Notes on Design:

When building this world, the biggest design challenge was the Sisyphus Machine itself. I built it from scratch and used multiple animations to create an asset that is in perpetual motion. I took inspiration from high-end coffee makers, those creations of wood and glass that sell a lifestyle more than anything else. It took around 8 or 9 iterations of the machine in Blender until I arrived at an asset suitable for the world. What I learned is patience with iterative process of asset building is key, although the goal should be to make the process as efficient as possible.

Platform: VRChat | Assets: Creative Commons/Open Source, Blender, Canva