An Open Field

Combining a personal, critical essay and an interactive piece, An Open Field explores questions of how we deal with our own mortality by gazing through the lens of death in videogames. In doing so, it opens up a cross-media conversation between the essay and the game, each inextricably linked by the themes and ideas that they were made on.

An Open Field's essay is split into four sections — each representing one of the cardinal directions in the game space. The abstract themes being discussed in the essay gain a physical form inside the game.

An Open Field's game explores the ideas expressed in the essay but subverts the concept of "virtual death". Death can happen anytime — without rhyme or reason and it's permanent and definite, pulling the player out of the game and permanently erasing it.

What is the death of a software?

Death is permanent in An Open Field and will erase the game.

You can either read the essay first or play the game. The experience will be different in either case.

An Open Field is the fourth entry in the experimental series of short-form games "Agency?".