/AfterGame is a short digital experiment which uses motion capture data created during a performance by Lara Habib Kobeissi and directed by myself at CCIXR, the digital capture studio at the University of Portsmouth. This project invited a group of artists to the studio through Play Office to create experimental work with this equipment.

The work began as a physical exploration of video game jank. We were inspired by the 2008 flash game ‘QWOP’ in which I directed Lara by assigning numbers to each of her limbs and controlling her movements while travel from point A to B through verbal instruction. The data output gave me these janky, unnatural and strained movements which I began experimenting with in rendered environments. In my first experiments with wire mesh bodies and untextured rocks the movement felt like nothing. It wasn’t until I started to develop a story around the movement did the data and visuals come to life.

I created a world I was familiar with through the games I knew. Call of Duty, S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Dayz inspired the Pripyat-like environment I built. The character matched this with his solider uniform. Once the character was in this empty, decaying environment I began to see him as a video game protagonist who is waiting for the game to be loaded up again. The strained movement added to this, it was as if he was fighting the restraints the game developers forced on him.