KIT - VR Experience

What is KIT?

The KIT VR Experience is an experience tailor made for the KIT knowledge institute in Amsterdam.

The KIT Institute is an independent knowledge institute. The work of their experts focuses on global health, gender equality and sustainable economic development. The institute offers various courses, including a Master’s programme in Public Health.

Back in Q3 of 2024 the HvA (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) was approached by KIT with a request to create a VR experience that could be used within the museum itself. The team I was apart of got selected for this task.

The Wood Cabinet

This was the main subject of our VR experience: The Xylotheque. More commonly referred to as the wood cabinet. During the colonial period of the Netherlands wood from overseas was stored here for further research.

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The Idea

In this VR experience, players embark on a journey to build a xylotheque by collecting three types of wood from different regions. Using the xylotheque’s map, they can mark destinations and choose from three sequential difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard. The levels are set in Indonesia (1899), Suriname (1906), and Australia (1907), reflecting periods when these regions were major sources of wood.

Players face strategic challenges that grow in complexity as they progress, gradually filling the xylotheque. The game also educates users on the colonial history of the wood industry and sustainability, framing this learning both at the start and end to highlight the environmental and historical impact of their actions.

My Contributions

I served as the art director and 3D modeling specialist for this project, with some dev work on the side. My responsibilities included creating and evaluating custom-made 3D assets for our VR environments, ensuring visual consistency and cohesion between environments and various assets to make the player truly immersed. I also supported the development team when needed, assisting with performance testing, code optimization, and other technical tasks.

I have used both Blender and Unity for this project. Every asset in this project was custom-made, fully textured and VR-Ready, and I myself have created 85% of all assets used.

My work

Here are a few examples of my work: