Sabbatical over already?

Although I will not return to teaching until fall, I am afraid my first ever sabbatical is just about over. Apart from our car being totalled after my first week in Ohio, it has been a very positive experience. I was privileged to be part of the ACCAD community at The Ohio State University, where I spent six and a half weeks in person and collaborated remotely for the remainder of Spring.

The experience being played at the ACCAD Open House. Photo: Lexi Clark-Stilianos

An initial version of the full VR experience was presented at the ACCAD Open House on April 7. I have been collaborating with MFA student Raven Serenity Glover, they build most of the game mechanics. The experience is not really a game, but we still referred to the scripts that drive the interaction as game events and triggers. I am not enough of a stickler for words to argue every time someone calls the experience a game. Technically it is not, but it seems the default to refer to any interactive work as a game.

Here is reel I created for the ACCAD motion lab, including some sneak peaks of the project:
 

 
What was great about being immersed in ACCAD (which, as most of you know, stands form Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, the same place I received my MFA from) was the sense of community and being surrounded by smart people who all were doing research in fields closely related to what I do. Whether their focus was Digital Art, Art and Technology, Animation, Interaction Design or, well, Gaming, everybody was willing to share their expertise and help out when we ran into puzzles building our experience that a simple Google search did not solve. And, at least as important, they were there to bounce ideas off of and help develop the conceptual framework of the project. Teaching at a relatively small liberal arts college, I have only a few direct colleagues in fields closely related to mine, and am the lone animator there. From all these conversations with professionally like minded people I definitely learned a lot. And did I mention the great students?

ACCAD Open House. Photo: Lexi Clark-Stilianos

The project, for with he working title Inviting Motion stuck, is complete but not finished. We, that is: Raven and I will adjust some things based on the feedback from the open house (and other instances where people played, I mean: experienced the project) and polish a number of elements. With one last push we should be able to get it ready for festival submission soon!