Everybody have their own idea of what is acceptable, admirable or harmful visual intervention in the area they live in.
Project Entity is a type of application from the “serious games” genre - it is a research experiment masked as a gaming environment. Anywhere in the world, the player can plant and grow his or her virtual organic structure, alien plant - “totem”. The appearance and evolution of this organic structure reflects the real world as perceived by not only the creator but also by other players, who, with their actions, refine the environment.
Squares, parks and streets get their living avatar depictions; investors and urban planners obtain information on the occurrence and level of motivation for reshaping the public space.
Referential project: the Emotional Map of city ´Valašské klobouky´ www.pocitovemapy.cz Jiri Panek : People could interact with a board map which was the basis for the Emotional map. Players could by six different coloured items mark the places in the area they know. Each colour represented a different emotion. Culture and Sports - here i get social ; Green and Architecture - this way i like to walk ; Peace and Safety - here i feel well ; Neglited area - missing foliage, architecture ; Unrest and Danger - here i don't feel secure ; Bad traffic area - here i dont like to commute
Story
„This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our science, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.”
Jimmy Carter, 1977, the Voyager Golden Record
Imagine there are many messages like this broadcasted on our planet, except we have not been able to decipher them yet. Due to the excessive amount and variability of the messages, even the largest of observatories can only translate them as noise.
The presented augmented reality game Entity, designed for mobile phones and tablets, should enable the player work out the mysterious signals from the outer space in the digital layer of the real world map as well as explore extraterrestrial structure schemes and “recipes” for new virtual organic structures - totems, the new forms of life.
Every player can anywhere in the world plant the seed of their virtual totem – an organic structure from outer space. Like its origin, its life energy is tied to electronic devices, dying without attention.
The player learns to develop and maintain progressively demanding and interesting species. He or she finds out which types of (plants) structures are mutually harmful and which can have a symbiotic relationship. He or she eventually gains an excellent command of creating entire harmonious gardens and can attend tournament shows of the most beautiful and invasive biotopes.
Each organic structure - plant or plant cluster can carry a virtual panel containing a text message or an entire discussion forum with a gallery of images, which makes it a carrier of a deeper purpose, not only an aesthetic one.
On the background of the real world, the player decides what he or she like or not in the given area, and can positively as well as negatively influence the environment shared with others. As opposed to other games or social networks, the making of the decision is conditioned by the players physical presence in the area. This eliminates the attitudes of those who effectively do not know the given area or are not capable of giving up the comfort of their homes in order to assert their stances. Such focused attention brings together and motivates those who can actually influence the area. Their very presence, a show of interest, has a positive impact on the formation of an area that may be neglected by society.
Social Dimension
The structure is the player’s avatar. It is the player’s embodiment via which he or she relates to the environment. The associated virtual environment acquires one of the possible perspectives, which can suggest the way it can be cartographically labeled, and with each and every newcomer and their response to the environment, this description becomes more refined. It also makes it possible to create the mental image of the real area: how often it is visited, with what kind and level of motivation, by what type of players or personalities; whether it awakens deviant behavior or behavioral fluctuations in the player.
Thanks to the possibility to constantly add and manipulate objects, the game allows multiple users to collaborate in evaluating and solving problems in a synchronous way and to be instantly aware of actions made in their areas of interest.
The present project is a scientific experiment, the results of which are accessible to anyone, and the practical benefits of which grow in everyone’s mind in the form of the knowledge of one’s self, one’s surroundings, foreign places and their inhabitants.
The project is currently being developed as part of the doctoral studies at the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the Technical University in Liberec
The practical part, that is, the game itself, is elaborated into detail in the “Game Design Document,” available for preview on PC here..
