The Interactive Pasts Conference 2: Andreas Angourakis and Shawn Graham
3Video presentation for the Interactive Pasts Conference 2, October 8-10 2018, Center for Sound and Vision.
Andreas Angourakis (University of Barcelona)
Shawn Graham (Carleton University)
Gaming Artificial Anasazi: Applying immersive game design and storytelling to an agent-based model in archaeology
We present our experience of designing a first-person, open-world video game built over an archaeological agent-based model. This initiative responds to our anxieties regarding the possibility of building a mutually-beneficial relationship between archaeological agent-based simulation models (ABMs) and video games.
We believe that the ABM community in archaeology can use video games as heuristic tools for documenting, exploring, sharing, and possibly improving their models, while game developers would find that archaeological ABMs are powerful procedural generators of contents that are informed by archaeological research.
To implement our ideas in a proof-of-concept, we choose one of the first and most influential ABMs in archaeology, generally known as ‘Artificial Anasazi.’ We explain the process of translating the model from NetLogo to Unity (C#), from obtaining and reviewing the related published materials to expanding the original model. We discuss the issues and challenges encountered.
We present an overview of our consolidated game design and story, commenting on caveats and opportunities of using ABM models for creating feasible and attractive video games. The game, which we tongue-in-cheek refer to as ‘Quantum Leaper,’ is being developed as a side project and remains unfinished and unpublished. However, we are committed to increasingly sharing our progress with both archaeological and game development community. We are open for collaborators, both archaeologists and game developers.