Dreaming The Prairie: updated version

• UPDATED VERSION: This is the release of DTP1.0.0! Expanded and greatly improved over DTP0.5.0 (8 plants), now with 20 interactive plants.

• Explore the incredibly detailed world of Bell Bowl Prairie from the miniature perspective of a bumblebee.

• Reveal poems cached within certain plants when you trigger the release of pollen.

• Journey between different species of plants, browsing amongst their flowers.

• Relax while playing this game and immerse yourself in a world of marvels as if you are the size of a bumblebee. Our science+art project aims to enable people to connect with the world differently and to realize that beauty can be accessible no matter what size you are.

• Emotional reaction motivates action: raised awareness can elevate environmental protection to the level of real concern.

Gameplay:

Gamepad Controls:

PC Keyboard Controls:
A/Left Arrow = Move Left
D/Right Arrow = Move Right
W/Up Arrow = Move Forward (away from the camera)
S/Down Arrow = Move Back (towards the camera)
Spacebar = Move Upwards
Left Shift = Move Downwards
CTRL = Speed Up
Move the mouse to change the camera angle, or steer her movements.
E = Pollinate the flower when you see the word "Pollinate". (Onscreen, the oval "Pollinate" prompt is accompanied by a circular icon for the "A" button on the Gamepad controller, but keyboard users must substitute the "E" key.)
Click <Finish Reading> with the mouse when you want to fly to another flowering plant.

After you have activated the pollination sequence, the revealed poem will remain visible even after you have clicked <Finish Reading>. You must click <Finish Reading> or "B" on the gamepad to be able to move again, at which point you can fly around the poem to read it at your own pace. When you leave the vicinity, it will disappear.

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1. Explore Bell Bowl Prairie from the miniature perspective of Rusty, the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee Queen. Rusty will fly when she is in the air, and crawl when she is on the ground.

2. Her mission is to forage on Bell Bowl Prairie for the resources to nourish a new colony of bumblebees. Follow the glow—using her super power to see ultraviolet light!—to locate plants rich in nectar and pollen.

3. Guide Rusty to the flower beckoning her to approach, as it has the richest stores of pollen to offer.

4. As she approaches, you will hear the voice in her head as she recognizes each species of plant by name.

5. When you are close enough to alight on the bloom, you will see a prompt to pollinate the flower.

6. Trigger the release of pollen to reveal a little bit of botanical magic. Navigate to read the poem.

When Rusty's mission has been accomplished, you can hit the ESC key to exit.

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Backstory:

Eight thousand years ago, a little prairie was born near the confluence of what would be two rivers—the Rock River and the Kishwaukee—as an enormous glacier retreated at the end of the last Ice Age. Full of gravel and sand, situated on a slope, it became a dry gravel prairie as intrepid plants moved in to make their homes where the ice had been. 

Its name is Bell Bowl Prairie.

The kinds of plants, insects and other animals that could thrive here were exceptional because the conditions were different from most of the surrounding prairie. A harmonious ecosystem evolved over millennia, and one of the special inhabitants that lives here is the Rusty Patched Bumblebee.

For a long time, people didn’t try to build much or turn this prairie into farmland because of the slope and soil type.

Unfortunately, that’s changing now.

Eventually, some people decided that this was a good place to build a small airport, and for years the airport listened to the scientists who valued the biodiversity of this prairie, and together they protected it. Now the airport wants to expand because its business is growing, and conservation-minded citizens as well as scientists have advocated for expansion plans that would still protect this prairie. But the airport has resisted persuasion to adopt a creative solution to designing its new facilities.

As they seemed intent to dismiss a more ecological perspective, the only thing that has interrupted their construction plans has been the discovery of the Rusty Patched Bumblebee, which is on the federal list of endangered species. In March 2023 airport management gave the green light to bulldozing the path for a new roadway through one third of the remaining prairie.

This project—Dreaming The Prairie—digitally recreates a topologically accurate version of Bell Bowl Prairie. The virtual version allows anybody—from local citizens to scientists on the other side of the world—to visit this location, since the airport considers it to be their private property and has forbidden access to the public. 

Our hope is that building up a greater degree of appreciation and care for Bell Bowl Prairie in solidarity with the committed efforts of conservation-minded citizens and members of the scientific community can help shift the airport’s certainty in their calculus that simply making more money in the most expedient manner outweighs more holistic concerns: preserving the environment is also of economic and social value. Stewardship and economic growth can and should be partners, not adversaries.

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We acknowledge and honor the many indigenous nations with historical ties to the Rockford Region including the Anishinnabe, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe Nations, as well as the Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox.

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Credits:

localStyle Team Members:

Charlotte Guan: Lead Character Artist (creature design & rigging), Phase 1 Project Manager

Mak Hepler-Gonzalez: Lead UI/UX Director, Level Designer, VFX/3D/Foliage Artist, Asset Optimization & Workflow Instructor, Concept Development

Kayla Kim: UX Designer, Quest Technician, Asset Optimization

Zoë Morgan: 3D Artist, 3D Rigger, Lead Game Rigger & Animator, Interaction Programmer, UX Designer, Lead Quest Technician, Concept Development

Brigid O’Neil: 3D Artist, 3D Rigging, Asset Optimization, Concept Development

Kayla Taylor: Assistant Producer, Lead 3D Artist, Asset Optimization, Concept Development

Joslyn Willauer: Lead Environment Artist, Foliage Artist, Level Designer, 3D Artist

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localStyle with poet Michael Swierz:

Marlena Novak: Producer, Creative Director, Conceptual Director, 3D Artist, Voiceover

Jay Alan Yim: Co-Producer, Sound Design, Original Score Composition, Concept Development, Entomology Advisor

[about localStyle]

Michael Swierz: Poetry, Ecological Guidance

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Contributing Artists:

Diana Jiang: Project Intern, 3D Artist

Jane Tao: 3D Artist

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System Requirements:

We have been running the game successfully on a variety of differently configured computers—all running Windows 10—such as:
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X 16-core; 128GB; GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GPU
• Intel Core i9 7940X 3.1Ghz 14-core; 64GB; NVIDIA RTX A4000 16GB GPU

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© 2023-2024 localStyle. All rights reserved. All poems © 2023-2024 Michael Swierz.