Recreation Rooms: Don Carson's Cozy Chair Where He Designs Walkabout Mini Golf
Mighty Coconut art director Don Carson sits in a gray wingback chair to explore VR and design new courses for Walkabout Mini Golf with Gravity Sketch.
My new series Recreation Rooms begins today inside the home of Mighty Coconut Art Director Don Carson.
Carson shared his space in an email to ianontherecord@gmail.com explaining:
Starting with the first Oculus DK, through a series of HTC Vive, and finally Meta headsets, I have tried a variety of setups. From the dream of Room Scale, the fantasy of an omni directional treadmill, to standing in the middle of my studio waving my arms around... this is where I settled. In the end, with the exception of putting a golf ball, all my VR creation and socializing happens in this comfortable wingback chair. I tether to an old PC (the one I bought to run the first Oculus), but only when working on hefty Gravity Sketch models or when visiting PC worlds in VRChat. I don’t play many games but I do watch videos from this chair and even settle into it when collaborating during our WMG Design Retreats.
A video Carson posted to Instagram in 2024 shows a quick time-lapse view of how Walkabout courses take shape. The creations begin in the VR app Gravity Sketch during those design retreats and then the rough work gets passed around to different members of the art team at Mighty Coconut adding various elements over the course of a year.
Thanks to Carson for sharing his Recreation Room. If you’d like to share yours with our community here, email ianontherecord@gmail.com with “Recreation Room” in the subject and photos of your space and hardware. Include any details about the specifications and objects in your space, as well as the experiences you have in VR and why you designed your space this way.
One of my favorite details in the photo Carson shared is a piece of art on the wall called The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg. There was a print of this classic work in my home when I was a child and I am on the lookout for a copy myself to add to the walls of my VR space. I’ve reduced entire shelves of Blu-ray discs and DVDs down into binders hanging from my walls, and I’ve even hung a step ladder using heavy duty utility hooks from 3M. I can pull out the ladder and step up a few steps to access high shelves all the way to the ceiling. Up there, I store a few of my favorite stories from games and movies in their original packaging, alongside some books that have stayed with me like Lord Of The Flies by William Golding and Night by Elie Wiesel. In those moments when I am up on the ladder, looking at the media I keep close even when I’m in VR, I remember The Bookworm. Carson says the artwork is one of his “favorite possessions” from his grandmother’s estate.