TheBlu is a digital media franchise about the world’s oceans. A concept originally created by Neville Spiteri and Scott Yara (co-founders of Wevr) in 2010, TheBlu started out as a global mission to create a living digital ocean on the world wide web. The creators drew upon elements from video game design, movie visual effects, artist collaboration, social media, internet infrastructure, and ocean conservationism. TheBlu has since been developed into multiple products ranging from a distributed simulation PC screensaver to, more recently, a fully immersive location-based VR experience.

2010 TheBlu created by Neville Spiteri and Scott Yara. Lead engineer Scott Reeser develops the first prototype.

2012 TheBlu 1.0 debuts in Times Square with partners including the Smithsonian and the Ocean Elders

2013 TheBlu wins SXSW Best Startup Accelerator Award

2014 TheBlu VR is a Samsung GearVR launch title

2015 TheBlu: Whale Encounter, directed by Jake Rowell, debuts at GDC and MWC

2016 TheBlu: Season1, directed by Jake Rowell,  launches on Steam and Oculus

2018 TheBlu: Deep Rescue VR LBE, directed and produced by Jake Rowell and in collaboration with Dreamscape, launches in LA

2019 TheBlu: Deep Rescue opens in new Dreamscape locations across the US and in Dubai

2020 TheBlu celebrates its 10-year anniversary since inception

TheBlu was first implemented as a distributed PC screensaver app. Users could experience different species and habitats as a real-time 3D simulation. The distributed simulation enabled fish to swim from computer to computer across the internet, creating a sense of a globally connected experience.^[1]

The original vision for TheBlu called for a participatory platform in order to represent the vast variety of ocean life, enabling 3D artists and animators from all over the world to create species and habitats, which became part of the experience. Users could purchase species and habitats, with payments made to contributing artists.

TheBlu launched in May of 2012 in Times Square, showcased on the giant Nasdaq and Reuters screens. People passing through Times Square downloaded TheBlu app on their phones, where fish swam from the giant screens to their phones.

TheBlu team included participation from 3D artists, animators, software engineers, ocean scientists, and conservationists. Scott Reeser, Lead Engineer, was the first member of TheBlu development team. Andy Jones, Academy Award winning animation director best known for his work on Titanic, Avatar, The Jungle Book, and The Lion King, was an early collaborator.

TheBlu partnered with the organization Ocean Elders including Richard Branson, Ted Turner, Jean Michel Cousteau, Neil Young, Queen Noor, James Cameron, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Dr. Sylvia Earle - Time’s Hero of the Planet and celebrated National Geographic Explorer.

TheBlu also partnered with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and WildAid to help raise awareness about ocean conservation. Featured at the WildAid Gala event in June 2012, a blue whale virtual object in TheBlu was auctioned for $10K towards wildlife protection.

TheBlu was recognized in the press and won the SXSW Startup Accelerator award in 2012.

In 2014, as the Oculus Rift VR headset became available through the Oculus Kickstarter project, Wevr got early access to an Oculus Rift headset and was able to re-engineer TheBlu codebase to work with the Rift.

During this time, Samsung was in early development on the Samsung GearVR headset. Samsung also requested a version of TheBlu to be developed for the Samsung GearVR product launch. TheBluVR was designed as an educational series of ocean journeys specifically for the mobile VR device, leveraging the software and 3D assets previously developed for the original version of TheBlu. TheBluVR was announced with the launch of Samsung’s GearVR at the IFA conference in Berlin in September 2014.

TheBluVR won the Proto Award for Best Educational VR experience.

In 2014, Wevr was on a short list of developers that the VR team at Valve introduced to an early HMD prototype of what would become the HTC Vive, with an opportunity to build a demo for the device. Wevr became one of the very first companies to receive the “-1” prototype headset in December of 2014. [Insert picture]

Spiteri brought on Jake Rowell, who directed the VR experience for the Valve prototype headset, now known as the TheBlu: Whale Encounter - a deeply immersive introduction to VR that transports audiences under the ocean to come face- to- face with an 80-foot bBlue whale, the largest species on Earth. The 2-minute experience creates both a sense of scale and empathy. TheBlu: Whale Encounter was selected by Valve selected TheBlu: Whale Encounter  to be featured at the Game Developers Conference in 2015, and HTC selected it by HTC as the launch demo for their HTC's announcement of the Vive at MWC in Barcelona 2015, where the HTC Vive won Best of Show.

TheBlu: Whale Encounter is now recognized as one of the most iconic and popular VR experiences to date.^[2]

Spiteri, Rowell, and the Wevr team set out to expand TheBlu: Whale Encounter experience into a series. TheBlu Season1, directed by Rowell, includes:

Episode 1 - Whale encounter – Transport yourself to a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean and come face to face with an 80-foot Blue whale.

Episode 2 - Reef Migration - Witness the magnificence of an undersea migration on the edge of a coral reef.

Episode 3 - Luminous Abyss - Venture into the deepest region of the ocean to discover the iridescent abyss.

Episode 4 - Hammerhead Cove (unreleased) – Hangout in the intense yet tranquil midst of a swarm of sharks.

TheBlu: Season1 was released on April 5th, 2016 and is still available on Steam and the Oculus store for PC based headsets.

TheBlu:Season1 was a Sundance Film Festival 2016 selection, and won a Proto award for Most Transportive Experience. Customer testimonials on Steam:

“This game... BLEW MY MIND. Simply beautiful.”

"This is the first thing I show to people who want to see Virtual Reality for the first time, and it always blows their minds… for those who are looking for a "showcase" experience to show off to friends and family, I think this should be at the top of everyone's list.”^[3]

TheBlu:Season1 was adapted for location- based venues, combining the first three3 episodes into a six- minute continuous journey. TheBlu Venue edition showcased at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).^[4] Time Out LA described the experience as, “one of the best things to do in LA!” The experience became an overwhelming success for the museum, which led to the exhibit being extended for several months. TheBlu has also showcased in the Dubai Aquarium in Dubai Mall (UAE) and other cities around the world.^[5] TheBlu:Season1 is currently being used by several healthcare organizations and educational institutions.

In 2017, Dreamscape Immersive partnered with Wevr to develop a version of TheBlu for the Dreamscape platform.^[6]

Spiteri again engaged Jake Rowell to direct and produce the experience in collaboration with Dreamscape. TheBlu: Deep Rescue is a 10-minute adventure propelled by a conservationist narrative, where you get to save a baby blue whale from fishing nets. In groups of up to six people at a time, participants can roam freely, seeing themselves and their fellow travelers in dive suits, with the ability to interact with schooling fish and riding underwater scooters alongside giant blue whales with your friends.^[7][8]

TheBlu: Deep Rescue opened December 2018 at the first Dreamscape location at Westfield Mall in Century City Los Angeles, California.^[9] TheBlu: Deep Rescue is expanding to locations across the US and internationally including Texas, Ohio, Dubai and others.

The same blue whale from the original version of TheBlu PC screensaver, and TheBlu: Whale Encounter VR demo, reappears in TheBlu: Deep Rescue as the mother whale. She is named “Sylvia” inspired by Dr. Sylvia Earle.