The Night Journey

»The Night Journey« was one of the first experimental art games ever.

It was created in a collaboration between video artist Bill Viola and the Game Innovation Lab of the University of South California. It uses elements of both computer games and video art to evoke the journey of of a person towards enlightenment. The player enters a surreal and dark dream world.

Visually, the game is inspired by the video art of Bill Viola. The texts are based on the writings of historical figures: Rumi, an Islamic poet and mystic of the 13th century, Ryōkan, an 18th-century Buddhist poet, St. John of the Cross, a 16^th-century Spanish mystic and poet, and Plotinus, a 3^rd-century Greek-speaking philosopher.