Notes on Blindness is an interactive VR documentary built from John Hull's audio diaries, letting you sense the world as he did after losing his sight.
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Notes on Blindness is a narrative adventure experience from Novelab and Atlas V, published by ARTE France. It is based on the cassette diaries John Hull kept after he went completely blind in 1983, following years of his vision slowly failing, and turns those tapes into a non-fiction story about perceiving the world without sight. It has been on the Meta Horizon Store since July 12, 2019.
How it plays
The store presents it as a story and a sensory piece rather than a game with goals to beat. Hull's original recordings guide you through a series of scenes whose art and sound are designed to suggest how he made sense of places and people once he could no longer see them. Spatial audio carries much of the experience, and the scenes respond to how you move your head and to simple controller interactions.
The credits on the store page name Ex Nihilo and ARTE France as producers, co-produced with Archer's Mark, with Novelab Audiogaming as executive producer. It is a calm, personal piece and a good fit for anyone interested in documentary work in VR.
Comfort
Meta rates it comfortable for most people. The store lists support for playing sitting, standing or at room scale. You play with controllers.
Platforms and what to know before buying
- Price: free on the Meta Horizon Store.
- Headsets: Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2, plus the original Meta Quest.
- Internet: not required.
- Ads: no in-app ads.
- Early access: no.
- Languages: English, French and German.
- Age rating: 3+.
