Lift: The Last Days of the Westwind
A VR interactive narrative where you operate a hotel elevator in it's final days of glory, the way you interact with the guests shifts the story along the way.
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Idea
VR games are often physically demanding and prone to motion sickness. Lift explores how to deliver a story-driven experience in VR that is comfortable, immersive, and emotionally engaging without requiring constant player movement.
What I built
Founded and led development of Lift, a narrative VR game built around comfort-first interaction, and branching story systems. I shaped the concept, designed core gameplay, and led a 12-person team from pitch to public release.
Result
Selected as 1 of 13 projects (from 80) and taken from pitch to a publicly released VR game on Steam. Award-winning and shipped, showcasing end-to-end leadership across concept, development, and release.
Overview
Lift is a narrative VR game where players work as an elevator operator in the final days of a once-glamorous hotel. Guests arrive with competing needs, and your moment-to-moment behavior shapes tone, trust, and story outcomes.
The project evolved from a student prototype into a shipped Steam title with continued platform expansion, requiring production-minded interaction design, team leadership, and long-term technical ownership.
Key Contributions
- Founded and led the project from concept through shipping, coordinating interdisciplinary collaborators across engineering, art, and performance.
- Designed and implemented core VR interaction systems for elevator controls, object handling, and environmental affordances.
- Built branching narrative systems that connected player behavior with guest responses and evolving story outcomes.
- Directed iterative playtesting to improve comfort, readability, and accessibility while preserving tactile, diegetic interaction feel.
- Owned production planning and technical priorities across milestones, balancing feature ambition with maintainable scope.
- Prepared release-quality content and platform packaging for Steam while planning adaptation work for Meta Quest.
Feature Highlights
- Physical object interactions: Built tactile object systems that reward deliberate hand movement and support expressive player behavior in-world.
- Wearable hats + personalization: Implemented wearable hat interactions so players could role-play and communicate personality through gestures.
- Dial and lever mechanics: Designed and tuned elevator dials/levers for clear affordance, readable feedback, and comfortable repeat use.
- Narrative response systems: Connected mechanics to guest reactions so interaction quality directly influences scene tone and branching outcomes.
Awards and Milestones
Sammy Awards 2017 - 2nd in Best Game, 1st in Audio Design, 3rd in Technical Achievement
Steam release - July 2024