Wave Atlas is a water world teeming with artificial digital life, which users simultaneously create and discover. The more users who interact with it, the richer and more complex this ecology grows.
Collaborating with Marpi on Wave Atlas, I created a variety of modular pieces for the formation of generative digital lifeforms. The interaction was simple and satisfying— pinch and drag to create creatures in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors. We separated body parts for the critters into 3 buckets: head, body, and tail. By creating 100 variations of each component, one million unique combinations of the components were possible. Meanwhile, these components and their larger arrangements vary in their relative size, orientation, position, and color… which then also change dynamically. Each critter is truly unique.
Software I used: Blender 3D, Unity Game Engine
Programming: Marpi
3D Artist: Will Atwood
Producer: Jay Chen
Sound Design: Bent Stamnes
Editing: Eliza Struthers-Jobin
Operations: Christian Boullon
Video: Grigory Rudko
In collaboration with: The Tech Interactive
Program Manager: Nadav Hochman
User testing: Clarissa Buettner
Photos: Sierra LaDuke
Made possible by: The Knight Foundation
