Gibbon Moves

Welcome to Gibbon Moves, my first game development project in collaboration with Ishika Ramakrishna, a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, India.

Have you ever felt unsettled, heartbroken or even enraged and disoriented at the disappearance of a tree or a park or a lake or a familiar route or just the view of the open sky through the window that shaped your childhood imaginations, wondering and wandering? Have you often pondered over how the transformations of spaces you have known intimately affected your association with the place, and perhaps with yourself?

Changing landscape has become an undeniable and overwhelming aspect of human lives, mostly under the guise of its benefits to society. But how do other species that cohabit these spaces or live in close proximity respond and adapt to these changes? What happens when a wild species unfamiliar to close human proximity and such rapidly changing landscape wakes up to an unusually transformed habitat.

Gibbon Moves invites the audience to step into the shoes of an isolated population of the endangered western hoolock gibbon species and ponder over these questions, as they navigate a rather unusual setting of a small Northeast Indian village, living in close proximity with humans with its rapidly changing landscapes resulting in the disappearance of tall trees that these arboreal primates use for movement and foraging. We intend to create a gaming experience where the players can immerse themselves in the ecosystem, and see the world through the lens of a gibbon family as they face challenges and receive rewards in an uncertain gibbon world. Our hope is for the game to offer a large audience the opportunity to appreciate the nuances of conservation action in an ever-changing shared ecology of multispecies coexistence.

The project aims to blend scientific insights with artistic expression to raise awareness about the conservation of wildlife, specifically gibbons, through an innovative and engaging gaming experience.

The purpose of the game is rooted in conservation outreach aimed at diverse stakeholders including young and curious learners, explorers, wildlife and conservation enthusiasts, as well as seasoned practitioners, and other professionals from local, national and international communities.

This project is supported by:
1. Creature Conserve Scholarship for Artist in residence, awarded to Sambita for artist's time compensation
2. Discovery Explorer, awarded to Ishika Ramakrishna, covering consultation fees, production, communication, consumables and travel costs
3. Inlaks grants, awarded to Ishika Ramakrishna, covering production and communication costs