Third-person and VR Narrative Horror Experience

The Tooth: The Path of Torment is a continuation of The Teeth, expanding its Victorian occult-industrial world into a third-person atmospheric walking simulator. While the previous project centred on investigative storytelling within a match factory and the fictional Tooth Fairy cult, this iteration shifts toward psychological body horror and environmental immersion.

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Set within cavernous spaces inspired by the anatomy of the mouth and ritual altar architecture, the project explores phantom pain, silencing, and historical bodily punishment. References such as “tongue silencing” traditions and European witch-trial paranoia inform the thematic direction, grounding the horror not in fantasy alone, but in real systems of social control directed at marginalised bodies.

The experience unfolds as a third-person walking simulator focused on environmental storytelling and discovery. Players navigate a decaying industrial–ecclesiastical landscape, searching the map for scattered objects, ritual artefacts, and fragmented notes. These notes function as narrative shards: when pieced together, they reveal the logic of the cult and the broader mythos behind the Tooth Fairy entity. Progression is driven by exploration rather than combat.

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Core mechanics revolve around environmental interaction and systemic triggers. Tooth-related interactions alter spatial configurations; certain environmental elements respond dynamically to player actions. I contributed to the development and polishing of several gameplay systems, including wound detection mechanics, environmental state changes, and refinement of interaction logic to ensure coherence between narrative cues and spatial response. Beyond systems work, I was directly involved in environment design, shaping the spatial layout, atmosphere, and architectural language of key areas.

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Visually, the project draws from Zdzisław Beksiński’s desolate surrealism and the biomechanical grotesque of Scorn, merging cathedral-like verticality with organic, flesh-like interiors. The result is a world that feels simultaneously sacred and diseased — a space where ritual and anatomy collapse into one another.

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If The Teeth examined exploitation through industrial myth and occult conspiracy, The Path of Torment intensifies the psychological dimension. It transforms horror into spatial experience: not spectacle, but slow dread. Through exploration, fragmented documents, and reactive environments, the project asks how belief systems inscribe themselves onto space — and whether truth can be reconstructed from what remains.