Imperator Estate set

[malymin]

Circles¹ and Spheres, that which is Domestic², and Magic.

---

"And then we also had this technology. The first game we made with 3D was called Ballz. It was a fighting game and all the characters were made out of spheres. You know, the sphere is the only thing that wherever you put the camera, it's still a sphere. You don't need to store different images of the sphere. You just need to know the sphere has a radius of five and is blue and you can create it. So if you build the whole character out of spheres, all you have to do is keep track of is how the spheres connect. So we had a patent on that, we built the whole world using that. Then we made it into a pet. We built it into a dog. People loved it."

• The Replay Interviews: Rob Fulhop

"Pure F---ing Magic. Such was an old saying from my days at Atari…that ultimately our customers care not for our slick technical skills…they really don’t give a hoot about how clever our engineers are…what they REALLY care about is the overall EXPERIENCE they are having with our products… Like who CARES how the software that is running inside your PC works. All that matters is that it makes you believe that a living DOG is running around your desktop? From the perspective of a customer, it’s simply pure f---ing MAGIC. That’s all they really need to know, so such reminded us that all we care about is that our customers are ENCHANTED…and not to get overly in love with our technology, which is a real problem in some companies."

• Rob Fulop, Co-Founder and Creative Director of PF. Magic.

*"The question becomes, how do you do that? How do emotionally powerful stories and art “work” anyway? Alas, creating an artifact that produces a meaningful emotional reaction in a human is considered an “art” itself. Although techniques and advice on the artistic process have been published – works such as The Art of Dramatic Writing by playwright Lajos Egri, The Illusion of Life by Disney animators Thomas and Johnston, Letters to a Young Poet by poet Rainer Rilke – the act of creating emotionally powerful artifacts is by and large considered elusive, mysterious and unquantifiable. Even in art school the typical approach is to teach students to imitate (“master”) traditional styles and techniques, after which it is hoped the student will be ready to “find their own style,” which sometimes never happens.

Naturally it is difficult to discuss the art of creating emotionally powerful artifacts in the context of a scientific workshop, in the way one would approach a computer science or engineering problem – which helps explain the general reluctance to research the topic, and the not-so uncommon attitude among artificial intelligence researchers that the topic is “mushy”, ill-formed, or worst of all, unimportant. Art and entertainment is considered to be fun, not a serious pursuit. This view is short-sighted. On the contrary stories and art are among the most serious and meaningful pursuits we have. We communicate ideas and experiences to each other in this way. The fact that the problem is, to a degree, mushy and unquantifiable, makes it all the more challenging and difficult to undertake."

• Creating Emotional Relationships With Virtual Characters, Andrew Stern. From Emotions in Humans and Artifacts, eds. R. Trappl, P. Petta, and S.Payr, MIT Press, April 2003. Originated from a symposium at OFAI in Vienna, August 1999.

---

_{1. See also: magic circle.}

_{2: Living near or about human habitations, as of animals. Tame, domesticated, as of animals. Of or relating to the household or the family. Devoted to home duties and pleasures.}