Interview with Salena: Part 1
Part of the "VR is Alive" Spotlight Series, Season Two
ArmaniXR: For this interview, I am fortunate to join Salena in Artifice and Tenebrous 3, some of their interactive and cinematic worlds in VRChat!
Feel free to watch the shorter video if you have less time, or listen to the full audio track below to know more about Salena and/or hear her advice directly.
Full Audio Track (74 minutes):
Transcript Part #1 below (edited for clarity and brevity):
ArmaniXR: First I just want to let you introduce yourself including your pronouns and what you want the audience to know about you.
Hello, I'm Salena, my pronouns are she/her and I’m a world creator.
How were you introduced to virtual reality how was it for the first time?
I think for me, hopping in VR for the first time was an unforgettable experience. Especially being able to see another world just appear before you.
What hardware were you using at the time and what was the time period like?
So the very first hardware that I used was the original PSVR, and I used that on my PS4. After then, I moved to the Oculus CV1.
Can you tell me more about your introduction to social VR specifically? Were you on other platforms outside of VRChat or how was that?
So VRChat was my first, and basically only social VR game. I pretty much joined because I saw a few YouTube videos, way back in 2017. And it was from there where I was able to see the flexibility of just basically choosing whatever avatar you wanted. You weren't limited to what the platform wanted you to be. This was a really freeing experience.
Can you tell me the backstory or inspiration behind creating your first world? What was the journey like to get from experiencing VR and social VR for the first time to actually creating and sharing in VRChat?
My journey began with a desire for a place to call home, so I created my own home world. With help from a friend who made the framework for modeling, I focused on improving the design. Initially, I just wanted a new home world, but later, my friends and I explored every adventure and horror map available. We eagerly jumped to each new one as it appeared. With some experience, I decided to create my own map, thinking it wouldn’t be too difficult. However, it proved challenging, but I persevered. It took a little over a month to complete my first horror map, Enveloped.
After that, I started on Tenebrous, which introduced me to atmospheric horror. Tenebrous 1 was intended as a test to see what I could achieve. Despite that, people kept asking for a sequel. Initially, I planned against a part two, but a week later, I began working on it. This was at the same time as Spookality. Once I finished Tenebrous 2, I went ahead and submitted it for Spookality, which was my first participation in a VRChat world jam.
I'm looking at your avatar, and I’m curious because it looks like you're not only skilled in world building, but also avatar making as well! What’s the inspiration behind your avatar?
I found the avatar model on Gumroad a long time ago. When I saw her, I knew she was the one. She looked very different from how I am now. She only had one outfit, which was just underwear, so I started making my own outfits for her. My main outfit is where she wears a blazer and a turtleneck. This is a custom outfit I created for her. I made it because I got the idea from one of my favorite characters, Modeus from Helltaker, with the suit and turtleneck. This current outfit is Floofy Kitt by Riceballer3D.
This one is an amalgamation of the newest and the old one. Riceballer went back to this one and did a complete refresh, which is where the paws come from. I really enjoyed the paws, but I also liked all the weight paints for this one. I really liked the way the painting was done for the ears, so I basically took the old version and just attached the new one to it.
Yeah, that’s cool. Especially the design because I’m thinking about the grabbable statues later on in your worlds. It’s cool to see that and see you here as the avatar behind it.
It’s kind of funny because I like the statue. It was a last-minute addition to my worlds. People just enjoyed finding them. I heard stories about how they found a statue, took it all the way to the end, and never let it go. I decided to keep adding them. I’ve been placing the statues in my favorite spawn spots in the world.
I was one of those people who carried the statue all the way through the story. It’s really fun to have an Easter egg. Is there something else connected to having a statue, or is it just something added to worlds? Has that changed recently?
Originally, it was just an Easter egg, something I would toss in worlds. Later on, it started becoming breadcrumbs. Currently, there’s not a huge plan for it, but there is a small explanation: It’s something players need to watch out for to see if it can add to the story or the walkable parts.
When I think of your worlds, cinematic comes to mind, and it’s incredible how much I’m drawn into them. I forget that I’m even in VRChat in your builds. What inspired you to create at this level?
I would say that this world we’re in, Tenebrous 3, is kind of my ending to this story. I’ve always planned that Tenebrous 3 would be the last one until I had to actually work on how that ended. But I can never come up with the actual ending. Tenebrous 1 and 2 kind of had their own story, but I didn’t quite know where it was going. The way I build new worlds is I start with the inception of the idea, and I know the ending, how I want it to go. Then, from there, I start to get all the details figured out. With Tenebrous 3, what some people probably don’t know is I already have an older version of it, done all the way to the end of the first chapter. I immediately started Tenebrous 3 right after Tenebrous 2…like a week after, then I started working on it. But then I started running into a bunch of burnout and just a bunch of “what do I do next?” “Oh, this area doesn’t look good.” There were just so many revisions and changes to where I eventually just stopped working on it, and so I never had an ending. So I just put it on hold and then I released it as a demo world.
Fun fact about Tenebrous: ReGrowth. ReGrowth was supposed to be my first remaster of Tenebrous 1 and 2. It was going to be a combined one because Tenebrous 1 is so short. Now they will just literally plop it on Tenebrous 2. And so I had the continuation that way. I wanted a more coherent story because I didn’t want to just have those breaks. In Tenebrous: ReGrowth, I actually have two statues from when we were talking about before. Because Tenebrous 1 had one, and Tenebrous 2 had one. I had a secret Easter egg where if you put both of them on this pedestal, the portal for the demo would pop up. That was a long time ago.
I submitted the original Reverie for Space Jam. And then I released Athazagora. It was from there where my style started to shift. I felt like it changed just the way I make everything. When I came back to Tenebrous 3 in the old way I did it, I just couldn’t work on it. And so the only way that I was able to work on it all is if I just redid it from scratch again. This whole world is basically just redone again. This would be my first technical remaster.
We’re standing here next to some examples of the interactables in your worlds, including some text and a lamp. How do you manage the story and the puzzles in each map? Is this on paper first or in another program?
To be perfectly honest, I don’t write it down. It’s an as-you-go process. I think just the way I function is I get too caught up on things. Being able to make a room and then have the room kind of tell me what it is helps me flush out the story.
How do you manage or select the textures that you use in different rooms?
I try to keep all the textures multipurpose. The crates here (behind ArmaniXR in the picture) use the same wood texture. My crates and most props come from an asset pack. These ones come from the devouring asset pack, which I’ve been using since the beginning. The way they had their assets is perfectly tiled. You can apply the materials to something else. It’s so you’re able to reuse those textures and normals for other things. I’ve taken those applications that I’ve learned from some prefabs into my own that I make. I knew I was talking earlier about the pillar in this giant silver thing. Both of these use the same texture, so the same material. I’ve been trying to keep everything shared. That also keeps the file size low. So this way I don’t have a lantern or something by itself that’s a 4K texture or something.
How do you guide users through your worlds and into your stories without pushing them too hard or spoiling the story?
It’s actually pretty difficult to just push someone along. Most of my worlds are pretty linear with backtracking. There’s one direct pathway that they can go. If there’s a dead end, I’m hoping that they’re curious enough to start touching things. Things like when you picked fuse this up, and it gives you the hint on what to do. But I’ve been experimenting because even in my Reverie remastering process, I’ve started trying to do a lot more with lighting. I would have the areas that you’re not supposed to go darken more in the areas that you can go are lit up. Even with that, people in VR just look at everything. It’s really hard without just taking control of their camera, and that’s something I really don’t want to do.
You can read Part 2 of my interview with Salena here!