In 2020, as part of the Master of Arts in Virtual Reality at UWE, I pitched a VR game called AvalonVR — adapted from Mamoru Oshii’s Avalon (2001).
Oshii made Avalon as a response to two things: the global shockwave of The Matrix (1999), and his own earlier work — Ghost in the Shell (1995). Where The Matrix asked what would happen if the simulation turned against you, and Ghost in the Shell asked where identity ends and code begins, Avalon asked something quieter and harder: what if someone chose the simulation — not because they were deceived, but because the alternative wasn’t worth returning to?
That question became the game.
AvalonVR. Playing the prototype, 2020.
The Concept
AvalonVR was pitched for the Oculus Quest Store. Set in a near-future dystopian city, players hold dual citizenship: inhabitants of a post-Communist urban reality and freedom fighters inside Avalon Online — an underground VR game they access through rented terminals. VR inside VR. Two simultaneous identities. The player never fully belongs to either world.
AvalonVR game concept, 2020.
The themes built into the pitch: the theory of militainment, the psychology of addiction to escapism, agency inside systems designed to remove it, and the specific vertigo of virtual reality layered inside virtual reality.
The Launch
The promotional deliverable was a fictional Wired interview — producers of the (fictional) released game, discussing what they built and why. The format let me do the critical work in someone else’s voice: what does it mean to make entertainment out of war logic? What does the player actually want when they log in?
The launch party was hosted at The Hive in AltspaceVR. A virtual event, inside a virtual platform, for a virtual game. March 5th. Livestream gameplay. Competitions. A DJ set from the game’s sound engineer, live on virtual decks.
Avalon VR Quest Launch Party. AltspaceVR / The Hive, March 2020.
It was fictional. It was also completely real as a piece of world-building.
AvalonVR vs. Avalon (2001). Game / film.
What Comes Next
The Wired article deserves its own space — it goes deeper into the themes than a pitch document allows. That post is coming.
So is something else: AvalonXR 2026. The pitch was academic. The slice will be real.