STAY ALIVE MY SON (VR): A True Story About A Father's Relentless Search For His Son
UME STUDIOS · 2024 · RPG, Interactive Fiction, Visual Novel, Adventure, VR
PC
Positive100% · 36
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About STAY ALIVE MY SON (VR): A True Story About A Father's Relentless Search For His Son
OVERVIEW Spanning over 45-years, Stay Alive My Son (SAMS) is a groundbreaking virtual reality odyssey where you are transported into the life of Yathay Pin, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide to witness the world through his eyes, where every decision you make unfolds his poignant story of family separation, survival, and resilience. This narrative is based on the true events described in Yathay Pin's compelling novel Tu Vivras Mon Fils (Stay Alive My Son), making every moment of the game an authentic dive into history. Made by a small team with purpose, SAMS is more than an experience through the life of one man; it's a bridge to the past, an exploration of the depths of human endurance, and a testament to the indomitable spirit of love and the essence of what it means to persevere, to forgive, and to heal. Honored with the Producers' Guild Innovation Award and five Telly Awards for breaking new ground in storytelling, SAMS revolutionized cinema history by creating a new genre in filmmaking called “Cineplay.” This genre merges cinematic storytelling with interactivity, allowing you to live the life of a real person with a deeply human and emotive narrative. By pioneering a hyper-realistic digital representation of Yathay and integrating volumetric capture of real actors, SAMS brings Yathay and his family to life inside the game engine, enabling you to relive key moments leading to his family's separation and his quest for atonement. THE EXPERIENCE Your journey begins outside Yathay’s home, where you meet an eighty-eight-year-old man, brought to life with a hyper-realistic digital human powered by AI. As light gameplay mechanics guide your path, you delve deeper into the psyche of a father haunted by choices from his past. In a ceremonial rite that intertwines your fate with his, your hands become his; you see the world through his eyes; his memories and dilemmas flood your consciousness. In a surreal twist reminiscent of "Alice in Wonderland," you plunge into the depths of his memories, initiating a quest for redemption and understanding. Navigate the cavernous labyrinthine symbolizing the recesses of Yathay’s mind to uncover the rich history of Cambodia and confront the moments and decisions that have defined Yathay's life leading to his family's separation and abandonment of his six-year-old son, Nawath. Relive the powerful moments that shaped his existence, feeling decades of sorrow and the relentless anguish of not knowing his son's fate. Taken on a mythical branch, your odyssey culminates in the mystical echoes of Angkor Wat, a metaphorical beacon in the darkness of Yathay’s journey. Here, in the candle lit sanctuary, you'll uncover the final, elusive memory. It's in this moment of revelation that Yathay's unyielding spirit shines brightest, revealing a tale of enduring love and the transformative power of forgiveness. OUR TEAM With limited resources and taking over 5 years in the making, a dedicated team of nine artists who were passionate about storytelling, aspired to shape society and culture through technology by delivering an immersive experience with a mission to change the modern day narrative of family separation into one of reunification through a profound, life-altering journey of the heart, made with heart. Carrying PC's and VR headsets in suitcases, we traveled relentlessly across continents to screen SAMS in over 25 countries and to share this true story with thousands of audiences, technologists, policymakers, NGO's, and Heads of State in an effort to humanize the trauma of family separation and urge people to join our mission to educate, empower, and reunite modern day families torn by conflict. By joining us on our journey to bring this powerful story and mission to wider audiences globally, your support is not only for this project, but a movement of change for these families. Your support serves as a beacon of hope amongst hopelessness, love in hate, and light against the darkness. We thank you! Victoria, our cast, crew, and team UME p.s. We know many of you do not have headsets and would like a desktop version. Due to our limited resources, it was only possible to make it in VR and we also felt this would be the most powerful use of the medium. But, we are listening and will find a way to bring SAMS to you! We also dropped the price to help spread the story. Please know, we are doing our best to find the funds to convert this project for desktop, albeit with some adjustment, and will continue to listen to your feedback because you and this community is our backbone. CAST & TEAM CREATOR: Written & Directed By: Victoria Bousis CAST: Elodie Yung (Cleaning Lady, Marvel's Daredevil, GI Joe Retaliation) Arnold Chun (Man In the High Castle, Bullet Train) Vincent Rodriguez (Mortal Kombat 1, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Raya & the Last Dragon) Abraham Sigler (Disney's Wish, Raya & the Last Dragon) Lucas Sigler (Disney's Wish) Kostas Filippoglou (Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Wild Bees) PRODUCTION STUDIO: UME Studios
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
I am a university professor in interactive media but also a historian so I had read Yathay’s book a while ago but then found out it was made into a VR film via LinkedIn! Due to this being a relatively new program, our department has limited equipment so I was planning on wearing the headset and having my students watch me screen it in class. But after experiencing it I knew that to give them the full effect they have to do it themselves - even if they had to do it one at a time. This film is much more than just a documentary of one man or the history and rich culture of Cambodia but also the tragic years that plagued its people during the devastating reign of the Khmer Rouge. It’s an interactive and engaging lesson on history cloaked in this incredible use of technology to drive empathy by experiencing an array of emotions – even the most intense like anger, fear, guilt, shame, love and hope to spark action. This is how we create change! This is what we should be teaching! Bravo to the creators of this magnificent artwork!! I encourage other educators to include this in their curriculum if possible!5 found this helpful
This was worth a look! There's a lot to like about it, also a few less likable things... The good stuff Great use of realistic meta human character with eye tracking who's gaze follows you - adds to realism and connection, and the choreography was good - helping to feel in a real person's home/presence. The story is incredibly sad and there's clearly been some research done to put this together. The Volumetric video scenes are nicely placed amongst 3D environments, and tell the story fairly well and the world design was nice towards the end. There was a button to dip the graphics quality which improved performance and look marginally. The not so good stuff Dungeons of skulls, candles and guns felt a bit insensitive to the real world story, and kind of cheap, and despite the really quite sorrowful storyline, I felt like it's emotional impact was lost amongst the fantasy. A lot of the interaction felt a bit pointless and walking around all the time was a bit blah. The big one - frame rates and visuals almost ground to a halt at times - this thing is heavy on your processors and desperately needs optimising. Summary There's not enough good cultural content out there with decent pr…
Interesting but very bad technical/VR implementation: No seated VR option (for no obviou reason). No subtitles or language options. Very hardware demanding (for no reason, graphics are mediocre or just ok at best), had graphics issues all the time. Killing bugs (abandoned game due to leaving a necessary object at an inaccessible spot). Not tested on popular controllers (have Pico4 but I read of issues on Meta also), had to find walk-around solution... There are many interesting free experiences (its really not a game) with no such issues, so price is unacceptable.
First, the program ran perfectly with Pimax "open XR" on my Crystal light, Windows 11. It is a compelling, moving true story, dark in its presentation, quite literally, but with an uplifting ending. The interactions are cleverly done so that you are drawn in to the story: this is not a "game", but more a cinematic experience, and it succeeds in this. It does seem expensive, unless on sale, and it is not well optimised. For a very small part, towards the end, my system struggled, but a definite thumbs up for the overall experience.
A touching story, and recommended - even if it's highly unpolished and you'll need an RTX 5090 for good performance and high levels of super-sampling. The game looks very blurry with lcd like Index, but looks great and sharp with my Rift CV1. The app feels like made for CV1. This app supports native Oculus drivers for optimal performance.
Caught it at the Annecy Festival this year and bought it on Steam during the sale for my family to experience. I was blown away - educational, touching, powerful, and grounded in history. This VR experience is next-level, with stunning graphics making every moment real and multi-layered sound design that pulls you right into this man’s world, thoughts, and emotions. For those who are sensitive: this story is a rollercoaster ride of deep emotions that keeps you wanting more despite wanting to stop many times. I felt this deep need to wanting to find out what happens to this man’s family. My kids saw it - a 9 and 13 year old - and they loved it! They were not scared, if anything they asked me a million questions and we even googled things afterwards about this man, child, and history. I am more faint at heart and a parent so this experience struck a deeper cord of realization and intensity so often seen even in modern news stories from Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine. I couldn't imagine leaving my child with a stranger. But the circumstances surrounding this decision were explained as harrowing, giving you chilling moments that make your heart race and palms sweat until you escape. …
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