Anandala

Anandala is not a game. Anandala is an interactive virtual reality art experience where you explore a vast labyrinth of ever-changing, psychoactive abstract art. Fly, as if in a dream, through this psychedelic world in the sky, where complex shapes and colors flow and evolve over every surface.

Encounter the Blorts, the curious and expressive artificial lifeforms that inhabit Anandala. Inspired by research in neuroscience and artificial-life, these intelligent beings interact with you and each other through mesmerizing movement, changing color textures, and their own musical language. Some Blorts can even bestow visions of mystical symbols. Experience the surprising emergent behavior of 130 unique, autonomous, living artworks that are aware of themselves, each other, and you.

Unwind and explore: Anandala offers a rejuvenating refuge from reality. Explore at your own pace and immerse your mind in a calming musical soundscape as you discover an awe-inspiring world of evolving beauty and wonder and commune with its unusual inhabitants. The ever-evolving textures and original ambient music provide a hypnotic source of brainwave entrainment to support presence, relaxation, and transcendent states.

Portals and Sky Shrine: Within the labyrinth of Anandala, there are 12 portals of varying shapes. Moving through them will transport you to different areas of the labyrinth, and can transform the textures, colors, and lighting in the world. One special portal, located near the highest point in the labyrinth, will teleport you beyond the labyrinth to the Sky Shrine, where you can commune with the chanting High Priests of The Five Sacred Shapes and The Five Colossal Blort Deities. The golden rings around the rim of the Shrine are also portals that will transport you back to various locations in the labyrinth.

The freedom of natural flight: Explore Anandala using an intuitive, physics-based flight system that makes flying simple and comfortable even for most motion-sensitive people. Point the controllers in the direction you want to go and gently squeeze the triggers (For Valve Index controllers, squeeze the grips). Squeeze a little to go slow, more to go faster (Just like an accelerator pedal). Use either controller or combine them for greater speed and maneuverability. To turn, simply turn your body, or use the right joystick/thumbpad for snap turns like in VRChat.

Converse with the Blorts: You can speak to the Blorts in their own language.
Aim your controller at the Blort you wish to speak with and press the appropriate button for your controller type.
​Press once for each syllable. Press multiple times in succession to produce phrases.
Vive controllers - Press the left thumbpad.
Index controllers - Press left A or B buttons.
Oculus Touch controllers - Press left X or Y Buttons.

Anandala has been exhibited in museums and festivals around the world:

Official Selection of the 78th Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia - 2021.
In association with the Biennale, Anandala was also exhibited at:
Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Turin, Italy
M9 - Museum of the 20th Century, Venice Mestre, Italy
Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA), Moscow, Russia
Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture, Barcelona, Spain
Euromersive Turkey - Istanbul, Turkey
Portland Art Museum, Portland, USA
​Centre PHI, Montréal, Canada
Sandbox Immersive Festival, Beijing, China
MC2: Grenoble, Grenoble, France
Centquatre-Paris, Paris, France
Invr.Space, Berlin, Germany
MEET Digital Culture Center | Fondazione Cariplo, Milan, Italy
Laboratorio Aperto di Modena, Modena, Italy

Official Selection of the Red Sea Film Festival, Saudi Arabia - 2021
The Theater of Digital Art (ToDA), Digital Extravaganza Exhibit, Dubai - 2022
LEV Matadero Festival de Electrónica Visual y Realidades Extendidas in Madrid, Spain - 2022
Bucharest International Dance Film Festival (BIDFF) - Bucharest, Romania - 2022
LINK Festival in Oviedo, Spain - 2022
MOXI, The Wolff Museum of Exploration and Innovation, in Santa Barbara, California - 2022
Rural Nations of Scotland - Hebrides International Film Festival - Outer Hebrides, Scotland - 2023
Sci-Fi London Film Festival - Hackstock VII, UK - 2023

Anandala is created by Kevin Mack, the creator of Zen Parade (GearVR/Oculus Go), Blortasia (on Steam), Devalaya Rupinam (in The Museum of Other Realities), and Namuanki (in VRChat).

Acknowledgments
I’m immensely grateful to Mauricio Movilla, for helping me implement my artificial-life behavior system. Not only did he write most of the code, but he worked with me throughout the process, helping me to understand the code, his methods and the reasoning behind them. Working with him in this way ensured that I got the functionality I envisioned, but also informed my design choices and allowed me to revise, improve, and expand the scope of the behavior system well beyond what I initially thought was possible.

I’d also like to thank my wife, Snow Mack, son, Jonathan Mack, and daughter, Olivia Mack, for their patience and encouragement, and for providing invaluable feedback and guidance. Snow provided insightful design guidance, Jonathan provided procedural modeling and shader guidance, and Olivia helped me understand and apply music theory in the creation of the music and musical language of the creatures.

Special thanks to Curators, Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac, for selecting Anandala for the 78th Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia, which resulted in Anandala being exhibited in museums and festivals around the world.