Flat Earth VR started as a thought experiment by Lucas Rizzotto who was skewering the idea that VR is an empathy machine by creating an immersive experience that allowed you identify with delusional perspectives. After invoking some emotional reactions in people who knew it was a joke, Rizzotto took some time off of the project as the moral implications of creating propaganda for flat earthers weighed heavily on him. Eventually, he picked up the project again while framing it more explicitly as a satire and comedy that he submitted to Sundance New Frontier as a joke, but was accepted.