ontological bleed development log
Attempting another digital garden to keep my thesis thoughts together.
ABSTRACT
‘ONTOLOGICAL BLEED’ is a research-creation masters thesis that uses the production of a database simulation game to develop experimental mechanics and a speculative fiction narrative that model and trigger the experience of ontological and ego bleed. This project investigates the affordances of the database simulation genre and multimedia narrative fragments to support this experience, developing strategies for narrative effect. Using the frameworks of cognitive and unnatural narratology, and possible worlds theory to discuss the players experience of moving from the actual world into the fictional world, discussing bleed - “In which emotions/identities/physical states/cognitive constructs spillover between player and character” (Bowman 2015; Hugaas 2024) as a form of metalepsis -” any intrusion by the extradiegetic narrator or narratee into the diegetic universe (or by diegetic characters into a metadiegetic universe, etc.), or the inverse (Genette 1980; Bell 2016). The game places the player as a research intern cross-referencing databases and physical artifacts, uncovering a supernatural mystery, and interfacing with mysterious entities associated with a reality that is encroaching on our own - much like how fictional game worlds intersect with ours, with the player as pivot point, existing at once in the actual world and the virtual world of the fiction.
Vingettes - Fall 2025
Vignette 1 - September-October - Spark Build
Vignette 2 - October-December - Open Show
Vignette 3 - January
Vignette 4 - February
Database Prototyping
Summer Database Prototyping
August Archive Database Update - 0.6
a game to make a game
Database updates - November 2026
install workflow checklist
Research
Abandonware Databases
Physical Archives
English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) at Internet Archive
Game Development
depreciated
Faux Twine Prototype
Lore and characters attempt 744
Artifact Prototyping
Seminar 2 Posts
Gillian - Seminar 2 Blog 1 - Research Design
Gillian - Seminar 2 Blog 2 - Methodology and Method
Spark Set Up
Paper
ineffable slop
fiction is a third leg
project evolution
songs about diagrams
Databases I have known and Loved
Physical books I would like to get
Studio documentation
literature is a machine for producing possible worlds
Non-game Media Inspiration for Thesis
Bodies bodies bodies
Database nightmare
Writing in parks
A little distracted today
Fussing about fiction returning from northern ontario
flesh
Bllaaaa archive
evolving research questions
Perceptual realism
Open Show project description & Name title
writers are fifth dimensional beings
build something that says something
screenshot folder documentation
Darling - Garbage TTS - Myst
massive security flaw
Performance and social anxiety
fake mushrooms
a bunch together - done
art shows?
old clips
you yourself and the narrator
giving and taking agency
how to tell if you are in a story world