Ouroboros
Ouroboros
http://www.tii.se/zerogame/ouroboros/index.htm
Ouroboros is a fully functional digital game and supporting website. I was responsible for inception and delivery of this practice-based research project. This 2-year project adopted a design-research methodology that used iterative prototyping cycles to develop and refine practice-components. The project team comprised 12 people over its duration, and is part of an ongoing investigation of experiential, aesthetic and creative perspectives on game design that investigates the space between game and art. A key area of focus is how to build emotional depth within game form. This individual output is part of larger body of work that is focused on an exploration of the artistic potential of contemporary digital game form.
Ouroboros is research project to develop a persistent virtual world for experimentation into new concepts for dramatic and emotive game play. As a game research project, Ouroboros addresses the following research questions:
• How to develop a profile of the player and play style, and to use this to take the individual player into account in the selection and development of a game character?
• How to deepen the player’s experience of being a character within a virtual world? How can the history of the game play experience evolve the player’s game character?
• How to create game play mechanics that serve enhanced dramatic functions?
Related research has been presented at the following conferences:
• “Play as Performance” game design workshop and lecture, Games and Storytelling, 23-27 April 2007, The Hypermedia Lab, University of Tampere, Finland. http://www.gamesandstorytelling.net
• ”On Characterisation; The Art of Illusion”, “The Reign of Catz and Dogz? The Role of Virtual Creatures in a Computerised Society”, AISB’07 Artificial and Ambient Intelligence, April 2nd 2007, Newcastle University http://hemswell.lincoln.ac.uk/virtualcreatures/index.html
