bitr (previously bloodryv) is part of the concepting process for my Digital Arts and New Media MFA thesis project. This is a prototype of a mix between a period tracker, an instant message service, a food (read: blood) delivery interface, a familiar locator, and a daylight reminder. Basically, it’s everything the modern vampire might want on their smartphone.

This project started out as a joke tool I put up on my personal UCSC site. It was unfinished and on its third iteration (first as an iPhone app written in Swift, then as a mobile game made in Unity, and finally as a website), so I took a break from programming and decided to hash out some of the visual design.

In the future, this app will likely be fully functional and exist as a sub-screen within a larger narrative game (probably in the format of a visual novel, though there is a conversation I am having about making the narrative of the game take place entirely in this fictional app and its human companion app). When I figure out more of the details for scope I plan on hiring a few team members to help me produce assets for the game, but for now this is a solo project. To the left are some pictures from the most recent design iteration (which are slightly newer than the images featured in my mfa blog post about this progress.

In addition to designing screens for the app, I’ve also put together some fake ads for biter. These fake ads were inspired by campaigns such as got milk?, Uber Eats ads, and online dating site ads (like Bumble and Hinge). In-universe, bloodryv has been at the center of controversies surrounding its algorithms, coded racial and class bias, data harvesting, and labor violations. I will be working on making some fake op-eds next.