Software Etc.

Software Etc. is a virtual shopping mall and chatbot ecosystem.

DATE

2016

CONTEXT

Shown at the 2015 Game Art Festival; soon will be expanded for web display

MEDIUM

Unity, SMS

PEOPLE

John Brumley  :  Game Designer
Alex Rickett  :  Game Designer

Software Etc. is a digital mall-simulation environment that allows human passerby to interact with Simulated shoppers walk around a virtual reimagining of the Westside Pavilion Mall in Los Angeles. The shoppers, abstract but faintly humanoid figures, stroll with the aid of stock motion capture data. Each shopper communicates using its own unique AI constructed from an amalgam of pre-existing digital debris: Yahoo Answers, text adventure games, message boards, crowdsourced input, and bots for customer service and trolling. Shoppers pause to converse with each other, and Human visitors can communicate with the shoppers via SMS. While the project was originally shown as an installation at the 2015 UCLA Game Art Festival, plans to convert it from a temporary physical exhibition piece, to a persistent, living, in-browser experience are underway.