ARTWORLD

In 2021 I was asked to develop an online multi player art game for kids.

De Vrolijkheid (The Happiness) is an organisation that gives art workshops for kids in asylum centers in The Netherlands. It was a great honour for me as a multi media artist to be given this complex task. I designed, made a technical plan, and programmed the game, from 2021 – 2024. Additional programming was done by: Lindsey Schaap (back end, and svelte code), Eelke Feenstra (svelte code, UI improvements). UI concepts and icons by design studio Harris Blondman. In-game graphics are made by Max Holicki, and are not open source.

In the 3D game world children can explore art works and make their own.

The children can draw, make stopmotion animations and compose music. The children can also make their own avatar and personal space. To me it was important that selecting an avatar was not done with pre made templates but that the children can express their own unfiltered creativity.

I tried my best to design the app to be as simple as possible. Harris Blondman Studio designed the icons and cleaned up the design. Eelke Feenstra later refined the UI/ UX.

By 2024 about 700 children have made use of ARTWORLD and many touching and surprising art works have been made.

I am very excited to have been granted the opportunity to work on this project. I have worked with De Vrolijkheid before on a videomapping for a small museum project.

ARTWORLD is a multi user game, so players see and can interact with each other.