![]() Several published academic papers followed, proving that Deep indeed can help players to diminish anxiety, improve their mindset, outlook, sleep patterns, and belief in their own capabilities, among a host of other positive outcomes. Since then, Deep as a concept and project has come a very long way.Īfter spending a year touring Deep around similar video game events across the globe – as well as art exhibitions, museum showcases, and even the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City – Harris and the game’s art director, Niki Smit, partnered with Radboud University’s Games for Emotional and Mental Health lab.Īt its core, Deep has always been about soothing and relieving anxiety in its players, primarily by way of diaphragmatic breathing, but with professional researchers now on board, the efficacy and credibility of the project on a scientific level could finally, properly, be explored. It’s difficult to put into words how much better I felt after spending just 10 minutes with Deep at EGX Rezzed in 2015 – so much so, I slept like an absolute baby on the flight home to Glasgow later that evening. Creator Owen Harris first conceived the idea as a means of controlling his own anxiety, saying that while deep-breathing exercises have never cured his anxiety and sleeping issues outright, they have helped control them.ĭeep, in essence, recreates the process, which, on-screen, sees a reticle expand and contract in tandem with the player’s breathing – with the player character sinking or ascending with each inhale and exhale, as they float around a gorgeous underwater network of bright coral reefs and schools of tropical fish. Using a virtual reality headset, headphones, and a custom-built self-calibrating belt that ties players’ real-world breathing patterns to how the in-game avatar navigates their gorgeous underwater surroundings, Deep creates a gamified version of diaphragmatic exercise. This person was experiencing exactly what I had, and exactly what Harris had hoped players would at that video games expo seven years ago. ![]() And I let out a little chuckle as I watched the player’s smile stretch wider and wider beneath the rim of the Oculus Rift VR headset strapped to their face and covering their eyes. I smiled a big daft smile as Owen Harris, the game’s mastermind and director, helped the would-be player slip into the breathing belt that wrapped around their chest. As I gathered myself and my thoughts, I watched through the glass doors of the Leftfield Collection Hall with excitement as someone else strapped on the VR headset I’d worn moments before. ![]() ![]() I didn’t, of course, but instead sat on a wooden bench opposite the room that housed Deep and other similarly unorthodox indie projects. Right there, on the show floor of EGX Rezzed 2015, inside London’s bustling Tobacco Dock events venue, among its scores of busy revellers shuttling between blockbuster demo booths and food stalls selling gourmet burgers drifting off to the rhythmic bleeps and bloops of the retro gallery’s chiptune soundtracks. In fact, that’s underselling it.Īfter first playing Deep – a meditative virtual reality game controlled by breathing – I felt so relaxed, so totally and utterly chilled out, serene and warm and fuzzy inside, that I could’ve laid down and slept for a week. ![]() Home > Latest News > How VR breathing game DEEP helps with sleep, anxiety, and long-COVID by Joe Donnelly How VR breathing game DEEP helps with sleep, anxiety, and long-COVID by Joe Donnelly Posted: Īfter first playing Deep, I had to sit down. ![]()
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