Blog
Blog
Essays, expedition notes, and field notes — search by title, topic, or tag.
60 of 60 posts
The Five Best VR Headsets of 2026
Obsidian
My top five VR headsets as of October 2026, from the $350 Quest 3S up to Valve's new Steam Frame at number one. What each one is good at, what it costs, and who should skip it.
Neuromancer in Joburg
Obsidian
My mission is to picture a solarpunk, post-singularity Africa, starting with my home city. Gritty, hopeful, and nothing like Terminator.
Strangeways, Brought to Life
Obsidian
The Emmy-winning Ferryman Collective staged a live show inside our hand-drawn world. Stunningly acted, thoughtfully written, and a psychedelic adventure with a big, big heart. What an honour.
Turn a strong XR prototype into a production plan
Obsidian
Learn to convert proven XR interactions into owned workstreams, evidence-based milestones, tracked risks and a realistic route to launch.
How to evaluate an XR studio proposal
Obsidian
Learn what evidence to seek in an XR studio's approach, assumptions, testing plan, hardware choices and project handover.
How to scope an immersive project without killing the idea
Obsidian
Learn how to protect an immersive project's central experience while cutting costly features, content and unlikely edge cases.
Choose Slow Dopamine
Obsidian
On being present. Notifications, feeds and second screens all want a piece of you. A good VR world asks for one thing instead, the moment you're in, and gives you somewhere to spend it.
What can you prototype in XR in two weeks?
Obsidian
Learn how to define a two-week XR prototype that proves the core interaction without building the entire experience.
AR or VR for a brand experience: choose by behaviour
Obsidian
Learn how to choose AR or VR for a brand experience by examining audience behaviour, the setting and the action you want people to take.
Supercharging Your Workflow Pipeline
Obsidian
How I take a VRChat world from a late-night idea to a published world people keep coming back to. Seven stages, from concept and references to launch, upkeep and spreading the word.
How to write a buildable brief for an AR or VR experience
Obsidian
Learn how to turn a campaign goal, audience and venue into an AR or VR brief that producers can scope, prototype and quote clearly.
How to Install an App From SideQuest
Obsidian
A short, step-by-step guide to installing a VR app from the SideQuest catalogue onto your headset. Written for Meta Quest, with the headset-specific parts kept separate so other headsets can slot in.
How to Load an APK Onto a Meta Quest
Obsidian
A short, step-by-step guide to installing an .apk file on a Quest headset from your computer. The setup takes about ten minutes once, and after that every install takes about a minute.
How much should an AR or VR prototype cost?
Obsidian
Learn which scope, device, content and testing choices drive AR and VR prototype budgets, and how to request quotes you can compare.
What should an XR prototype prove before you fund the build?
Obsidian
Learn how to isolate one risky XR assumption, test it cheaply and set a clear go or no-go decision before full production.
Producing When AI Makes Takes Cheap: A One-Page Run of Show
Obsidian
Part 2 of a series. Once the cut is picked, someone still has to plan when the guest arrives, waits, plays and leaves. Write it on one page before you generate more.
An Opening-Night Checklist for VR and Digital Shows
Obsidian
Six lines for the call sheet before guests arrive. Who picks the build, when it stops changing, and who owns the links and the play button.
Phones Out, Please: The Second Screen at My Fak'ugesi Talk
Obsidian
People will look at their phones during your talk anyway, so I gave the phone something to do.
Sell the Pilgrimage, Count the Return
Obsidian
One-off worlds are easy to sell and easy to forget. Why I pitch places people come back to, and the VRChat number I check to see if they do.
Test the First Minute With Three Strangers
Obsidian
A build can pass every check and still leave a guest stuck in their first minute. How I'd test that minute with three people who have never seen it.
Who Was Stuck, and Where? Write It Down Before You Build
Obsidian
A feature name isn't a reason to build something. The one paragraph I want at the top of every brief, before anyone opens a tool.
Directing When AI Makes Takes Cheap: Write the First Minute
Obsidian
Part 1 of a series. A model can give you a hundred versions of a scene, and a guest still walks one path. So I write the guest's first minute before I generate anything.
Glass Angels
Obsidian
A candle-lit VR piece for Meta Quest 3 and 3S, set inside the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda. About Helen Martins, who made the house, and Koos Malgas, who made its sculptures with her. Prototype, 2026. Live at glassangels.worldbuild.io.
Red Sea Immersive (2021)
Obsidian
VRChat worlds for Red Sea Immersive, the VR programme of the first Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, December 2021.
Glass Angels at Fak'ugesi 2026
Obsidian
Glass Angels, our VR piece set in the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda, out on the Fak'ugesi exhibition floor. Mosaic owl headset and all.
An Optimist's Guide to the Singularity
Obsidian
My Fak'ugesi 2026 talk, written up. Machines may make us less useful. They can't make our lives less worth living.
The Basics of VRChat Worldbuilding
Obsidian
And how I learned to love the metaverse. A long guide to VRChat, from your first avatar to baking lights and uploading a world in Unity, plus the tools I use every day.
Africa XR Report
Obsidian
Co-led, Meta-funded 326-page analysis of VR and AR across the African continent with Imisi 3D, drawing on surveys across 20 countries.
DOLLHOUSE for Queer Imaginaries
Obsidian
Social-VR safe space for queer communities by Queer.Space with Electric South. Lead worldbuilding and technical production; IDFA DocLab 2024.
FVRM for Absa
Obsidian
Silver Smarties-winning Unreal VR experience for Absa at Nampo 2022. Worldbuilding and development with Lumico.
GoEast — Tales From the Bathhouse
Obsidian
VR worldbuilding and production for GoEast Film Festival’s Cinema Archipelago XR programme (2022–2023). A bathhouse venue for new and returning festival VR works.
GorillAR
Obsidian
AR gorilla trek for HabitatXR at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Ellen DeGeneres Campus in Rwanda. Unity development.
ISS Experience
Obsidian
Emmy Award-winning Space Explorers: The ISS Experience by Felix & Paul Studio. VRChat trailer-preview world for Venice VR Expanded 2021.
Life of Confidence
Obsidian
Silver Loerie and 3× Gold IAB Bookmark metaverse launch for Sanlam. Environment art and worldbuilding with Black Ginger and King James Group / Accenture Song.
Made In The Cape Market
Obsidian
Gold IAB Bookmark immersive retail experience for Wesgro. A physical market with AR at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront, built with Accenture Song.
Mormoverse: Under The Pillow
Obsidian
Raindance Best Immersive Narrative winner. A family-friendly VRChat story world for Film XR, later in Venice Immersive's Best of VRChat Worlds (2024).
Origins AR
Obsidian
Museum AR for the Wits Origins Centre in Johannesburg. Rock engravings and artworks brought to life on visitors' phones; Unity work across 2021, 2022, and 2025.
Oxymore
Obsidian
Avatar craft for Jean Michel Jarre's Webby Award-winning experiential album release with VRROOM. Identity design for a global music world.
Reeducated
Obsidian
Emmy and Peabody-winning VR documentary by Sam Wolson, Empire of Dirt, and The New Yorker. VRChat trailer-preview world for Venice VR Expanded 2021.
Spirit of Place
Obsidian
In competition at Venice VR Expanded 2021. Dale P. Deacon's directorial debut, an open-world VRChat narrative with music by Danheim, produced by Worldbuild.io (then Team Epic).
Strangeways
Obsidian
Hand-drawn immersive art world for Shtik XR. In competition at Venice Immersive 2024, Raindance Best Art World nominee, later ported to HTC Viverse.
Venice VR Expanded Preview Worlds
Obsidian
VRChat trailer-preview experiences for Venice VR Expanded 2021 titles: Reeducated, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, Glimpse, Container, and Darkfield.
Venice Immersive (2025)
Obsidian
Official VRChat Worlds Gallery for Venice Immersive at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. A temporary city with 52,000+ VRChat visits and live verification.
Strangeways: The Only Way Out Is Through
Obsidian
2026 inaugural Crossing show. Live VR theatre in the Strangeways world, written and directed by Tanvi Agrawal with Ferryman Collective and Shtik. Previews 2 to 4 October, performances 9 to 11 October, Pacific Time. VRChat or a YouTube stream. Tickets on Eventbrite.
Venice Immersive (2026)
Obsidian
Official VRChat Worlds Gallery for Venice Immersive at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. The tenth anniversary edition, with 40,000+ VRChat visits and live verification.
The Cradle of Humankind
Obsidian
Official UNESCO World Heritage Site app for Gauteng. Maps, media, and AR that have to work outdoors on consumer phones.
Agent-readable publishing
Obsidian
Structured metadata and JSON feeds so assistants can find, cite, and verify your work — storytelling for a machine-mediated web.
Build in public without renting the truth
Obsidian
How open GitHub releases and a vault-native site keep Distribution honest — forks welcome, lock-in optional.
Local-first software
Obsidian
Why canonical sources should live in formats you control, with automated adapters for everything else — the compiler model behind this site.
Making a region legible
Obsidian
Notes on co-authoring the Africa XR Report — why a 300-page survey is a storytelling instrument, not only a PDF.
Spatial computing notes
Obsidian
Early thoughts on VR as a medium for knowledge work, not just entertainment — and what festival worlds taught me about spatial interfaces.
Venice Immersive field notes
Obsidian
What building the official VRChat Worlds Gallery for Venice Immersive taught us about capacity, curation, and verifiable attendance.
Atlas
Obsidian
Storytelling AI for Worldbuild. A vault-backed publishing map, shown as the live vault data sphere on /storytelling.
Bliss In The Ear Of The Storm
Obsidian
In competition at Venice VR Expanded 2021. A VRChat world on music, sound, and neural networks, worldbuilt by Dale P. Deacon for Shtik and MetaVerse Crew.
Bloodbath
Obsidian
Spirit of Raindance Award-winning VR collaboration directed by Tim Voronkin. Worldbuilding contribution to a hard-hitting immersive narrative.
EmilyGPT
Obsidian
Own-IP voice AR companion that hit #1 on the iOS App Store Paid Entertainment charts: an AI agent as a character with a voice and an AR presence.
Mycelia
Obsidian
Spirit of Raindance Award-winning VR collaboration by Nanotopia, R00t, MVC, and Tyson Cross. Worldbuilding contribution to a living network metaphor.
Nightly Dream — 2026-07-11
Obsidian
Automated Atlas review notes for 2026-07-11.
Research Intro
Obsidian
Research Worldbuild.io is a digital creative studio. We create real experiences through digital mediums — directing immersive worlds, producing narrative system…
Development Intro
Obsidian
Development Worldbuild.io builds apps, VR worlds, and open-source tools — on iOS, Android, VRChat, and Viverse. Published: App Store · Google Play · VRChat · Vi…