It's been regarded that exposure to a given phobia helps weaken it. An example is that I got over my arachnophobia (for the most part) by going out and seeking spiders in the wild (and a very hairy tarantula in my school's lab). But for some people, this is either difficult/impossible (no tarantulas to come visit), or they find the idea too frightening (I mean, would you pay house calls to a home with a pet tarantula?). It was my idea that a Virtual Experience could help mitigate this, giving people a "safe" place to visit their fears, without actually having to come near them. Though this may not be enough, it might at least open the door for them to expand in real life later. I also found that for me, someone who's mostly over his phobia, interacting with that phobia in a more creepy setting could be unnerving, but in an enjoyable way. Because of this, I created two options for the 'game'. Option 1 is for people who have a strong phobia, and want to move past it. And Option 2 is for people more like me, who don't have a strong phobia, but instead enjoy being slightly "scared" by seeing giant versions of the things that once bothered us.

Pick from Option 1:

Pic from Option 2:

Currently, due to budget constraints, I just have the levels for spiders (hence why I currently changed the name, to avoid confusion, in the future it will just be called PhobosVR). With any money from donations, I intend to quickly add snake levels (I already have prefabs for snakes picked out), add more realistic spider models and animations, and add a level for heights. As someone who's personally still afraid of heights, I've already found heights in VR can still be almost as terrifying as the real thing. But, unlike the real thing, when it was over I felt a sense of accomplishment, rather than feeling traumatized, and felt good for making myself brave it out.

Any feedback would be great! I'd like to hear if you think it's a good idea to have the more moderate and more horrifying versions in the same 'game', or if you think this will just confuse/alienate users. Since it's also usually hard to tell with VR what will be obvious and intuitive, and what will be super frustrating, any new pair of eyes is always appreciated. It's also very likely I'm making some classic VR rookie mistakes that more seasoned developers can easily spot.

My Project: https://deimo.itch.io/phobos-vr