City in a Bottle
Abstract
City In A Bottle is an interactive project bordering between art, science and gaming, funded by the Flemish Audiovisual Fund. The game environment is based on the principle of emergence (Goldstein, 1999). Organisms (plants and insects) start off with basic behavioristic rules and goals. If an opponent is edible, attack it. If an opponent is stronger, flee. When cornered, fight back. Hide in a flock of relatives to minimize the chance of being singled out. Follow a food trail marked by a relative. Expand and defend a productive environment. Grow colorful feathers/flowers to incite reproduction. Complex social behavior then emerges by itself as organisms interact with each other. Species with a good strategy will survive and evolve over time, will adapt, will look different. The gaming environment changes procedurally, there is no preprogrammed story or pathway. We don’t control the biotope. The creatures will find their own way and either co-exist or fight for limited space and food.
References
De Smedt T., Lechat L., Daelemans W. (2011). Generative art inspired by nature, in NodeBox. In: Applications of Evolutionary Computation, Part II, LCNS 6625, pp. 264-272, Springer.