Bubbles & Pearls

A VR arcade game that immerses you into an underwater experience, compete with your friends and family to achieve the longest dive and collect the highest number of pearls by collecting the bubbles that emerge from the abyss!

The game was originally inspired by the waning art of pearl diving. Although the game isn’t a pearl diving simulator, the theme of the game is symbolized behind it. The actual concept of the game however is a traditional point based collection experience. An endless autoscroller where you must balance collecting the rising air bubbles for oxygen, collect the rising pearls for points and avoid the oil. Run out of air or pop too many oil bubbles and it’s over.

Thematically, Bubbles and Pearls explore the concept of time and evolution. Pearl diving was one of Qatar’s main industries until the early 1930’s.

Pearl diving was risky and physically taxing. The lack of oxygen, the fast change in water pressure and surrounding marine predators made pearl diving a very dangerous profession. Despite the danger, however, the high value of pearls made pearl diving a profitable industry.

This arcade game conceptualizes the progression of the pearls value throughout time. This journey leads to the introduction of natural gases and utilization of petroleum, marking an end to a new beginning in Qatars development.