Paper Beast

Paper Beast is an adventure game played from a first-person perspective. In the game, players explore a large ecosystem composed of various digital life-forms originating from lost internet codes and algorithms deep inside the internet. In the adventure mode, the player assumes control of the first explorer and must navigate the world through manipulating the environment and interacting with the wildlife. Players are tasked to rescue them from dangers and predators, assist them in various ways, and use their abilities in order to progress in the game.

The artificial intelligence, which governs the behaviors of these animals, will react to the player's actions accordingly. Each species in the game also behaves differently and they have their own unique goals. The player can also modify the terrain so as to overcome environmental obstacles.

The game was directed by Éric Chahi, who previously worked as the creator for Another World. After working on From Dust (2011), Chahi went to work with a volcano museum on Reunion Island to create a virtual simulation for the island's Piton de la Fournaise. When the project was completed, Chahi developed ideas around the volcano work for a virtual reality game, where the landscape and creatures within it, represented by origami-like forms purported created out of the landscape of Big Data, with procedural behavior. The creatures in the game have an origami-like form as the team felt that they fit naturally with VR's "low-poly designs".

Chahi founded Pixel Reefs in 2016 and started the game's production with four people. The development for Paper Beast lasted for approximately four years, and as of 2019, the team was composed of a total of 16 members.

Paper Beast received generally positive reviews upon release. Christian Donlan from Eurogamer described it as "a transformative VR odyssey", praising the game's world and the wildlife. Rick Lane from PC Gamer described the game as a unique experience but felt that the adventure mode was "constrained by the physical limits of its vignettes".

During the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Paper Beast for "Immersive Reality Game of the Year" and "Immersive Reality Technical Achievement".