ArchaeOS
Welcome to ArchaeOS!
As a pilgrim, you have been granted access to a select number of records from our archive. Using our bespoke software, you will use a deck of cards to help you interpret three objects and submit your theories into our database.
These artefacts have been carefully selected for you. They are the only surviving records from the Domus Silica, one of the last great digital residences of the 19th century.
Caution: the objects can hear you.
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ArchaeOS was made for the Internet Archive DiscMaster Jam, exclusively with assets from DiscMaster. It is a speculative keepsake game which allows you to download a zine of your object interpretations at the end. You can print this out and fold it into an 8 page zine (see this guide for how to fold the zine).
It was inspired by Italo Calvino's novel The Castle of Crossed Destinies, in which characters can only communicate with each other using tarot cards.
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Credits:
Writing, concept and additional visual design: Florence Smith Nicholls
Programming and visual design: Mike Cook
Comments
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I loved it, it's like a fun creativity exercise.
I do wish there were more artifacts and that the cards had more of a link to them. Instead of acting as prompts and sparking creativity, most of them just stumped me, and I ended up only writing about 1 of the 3 cards for each artifact.
Furthermore, I feel like the "objective" could have been better explained - we're told to write "how an object could have been used, who used it" etc, but the objects themselves are glitchy 3D models - it's not like we're unearthing some prehistoric pottery, which we can identify its purpose. It also doesn't tell us anything about the creator/user of these files. And how do the cards fit in with a glitchy 3D file? Did they come from the same archive?
I feel like it would just be better to tell players to write what they think the objects symbolizes, based on the link between it and the cards.
That being said, I really loved the experience, and the printable zine you get at the end is such a nice touch. I also kept checking whether the browser tab was accessing my microphone every minute or so, great time!
They can't really hear me right?I absolutely love the idea of a digital game that leaves you with a physical artifact at the end, so clever!
This was a blast. I liked that I could have taken all day or done it on a break from work, however I wanted to do it. Big thanks to y'all for making it and Chase Carter at Rascal for writing about it.
The "how to make the png a zine" link doesn't seem to work, but it might just be my browser/computer. And I know how to do it, anyway.
What a neat idea! I really enjoyed this as a creative exercise, and it was fun to write about each object based on the unusual prompts. I kind of wish there were more than 3, or that I could play again with randomly chosen objects and keep going. Love the zine that it creates at the end!
Thank you so much! Yes we thought for the jam people might only play through it once, and we didn't have a lot of time to make the game, so we've kept the 'database' size small for now - but we're planning a post-jam version with a widely expanded card and object pool.
That would be amazing!!!