When you think of radical self-care, what comes to mind? Many would simply answer: prioritizing self-acceptance, eating clean, getting sleep, and being physically active. Those are the core ideas behind self-care, but radical self-care goes a bit deeper. Radical self-care is actively defying our own mental or physical wiring or the environment we’re in to grow past our negative habits and become the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.

Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment and Kinemotik Studios are leading a new wave of gaming and the radical self-care movement with their VR dance game Rave Runner. They’ll be at PAX West this weekend in Seattle, Washington from August 31st to September 3rd, 2018.

Studio Backgrounds

Rave Runner, Microdose VR, Soundself are each health and well-being focused VR games and experiences. Credit to: Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment/Kinemotik Studios

Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment and Kinemotik Studios are two Texas-based VR companies that are changing the landscape of fitness and radical self-care. In a Medium post called How the Era of ‘Self-Care Entertainment’ Was Born, Job Stauffer, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment, shared the connecting theme of the partnership, saying, “We believe in crafting a digital space with a deeper consciousness. One that can play a significant role in improving and elevating emotional, physical, and cognitive states. Ours are the tools of transcendence.”

Orpheus is the studio behind Rave Runner! Credit to: Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment

The creation of active games like Rave Runner and meditative visual experiences like Soundself and Microdose VR stems from a real deep need to counter a cut-throat and demanding industry and ever-changing world. There’s an apt saying, trust in your struggle, that I saw spray painted on a wall in Los Angeles and it still holds it’s weight in universal street knowledge.

Creators at Orpheus and Kinemotik see themselves and people all over the world with a unifying desire that’s larger than being entertained — to build games and experiences like theirs to help people grow and flourish despite the chaos and personal struggle going on in their lives. They are using the concept of radical self-care to create a humanly meaningful and electric VR game like Rave Runner that is said to be as engaging and engulfing as it is effective for health and well-being.

Radical Raving

Brush your shoulders off from the stresses of the world, let loose, and go with the flow of the music as you let your arms move with the electrifying orb trails — no glow sticks needed. Rave Runner is a dance game that also weaves itself into the rhythm genre that games like Beat Saber, Soundboxing, and BOX VR have become synonymous with.

VR games that leave us wanting to best our own scores or that leave us feeling sweaty, stronger, and accomplished have an effect on us that’s called the flow state. We enter it by being immersed in a VR world when our major senses of sight, sound, and touch are held gleefully captive. Active games like Rave Runner are giving fans and people a way to express themselves (also self-care!) through dance.

“Our team believes in harnessing the transformative power of mindfulness and video games, and that practicing self-care can be truly ecstatic and habit-forming, never feeling like work,” said Job J. Stauffer, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment. “The novelty of yesterday’s Wii Fit and Kinect is over, and the power of today’s immersive technology is already changing lives around the world as it has my own. Virtual Reality has allowed us to ignite the flow state in a player by designing games for their sense of presence and focused attention, strengthening their motivation, creativity, and learning. We then ground these ideas in traditional self-care practices such as dance, meditation, and artistic expression, creating an entirely next level genre of truly embodied self-care entertainment.”

Fitness and Well-Being

Rave Runner is already making major waves across the VR and fitness industries with the game’s team reporting a 1000 calorie per hour burn rate observed through Fitbit data. It’s currently getting more data during testing at the VR Institute of Health & Exercise at San Francisco State University’s kinesiology department labs.

Once the data gets crunched further we’ll find out more about where it stacks up in intensity ratings. Will it get the highest rating of Sprinting? With a burn rate of 16 calories per hour, we have an optimistic feeling it will. If this is so, it would put Rave Runner in a top spot along with Thrill of the Fight as a top fitness game for VR.

“We set out to make a game that emphasizes the pure joy of movement, that encourages players to open their arms, to begin dancing, and to feel amazing. We’re now using the universal language of dance to share the joy that we feel while listening to music we love,” said Ashley Cooper, Designer and Choreographer on Rave Runner.

To go along with the clear body benefits, Orpheus is also partnering with Metroid Prime concept artist Android Jones and the Vision Agency team to put on the very trippy dance experience, Microdose VR, at PAX West this weekend. Robin Arnott, Co-Founder and CEO at Orpheus will also be showcasing SoundSelf, the technodelic meditation experience that uses a persons breath and voice to lead the experience.

“Our partnerships with Kinemotik and Vision Agency are truly special, and have become a creative collaboration on a greater movement to enable players and developers across the world to practice radical self-care and self-expression that engages both the mind and body in full,” said Robin Arnott, Co-Founder & CEO at Orpheus.

Where to Find Kinemotik and Wave Runner

You can experience the full series of games and experiences by Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment including Rave Runner, Microdose VR, and SoundSelf at PAX West 2018, Aug 31st through Sept 3rd. You can find them at the Washington State Convention Center in Booth #6103.

Players can also stay tuned for the latest information about Kinemotik on their Facebook and Discord. Find out more about Orpheus Self-Care Entertainment by following them on Instagram and Twitter, liking their page on Facebook, joining them on Discord, or visiting orpheus-selfcare.com.

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