A 14-week worldbuilding and interactive storytelling experience bridging the talents of game designers and in-service educators.
POLYKOSMIA (Greek: Πολυκοσμία ; poly- “many” -kosmia “world”) is a collaborative interactive storytelling project created by a team of University of Connecticut Digital Media and Design and UConn Neag School of Education students.
In early March 2020, two classes in two different UConn programs (Digital Media & Design and Educational Technology) were asked to help construct a shared storyworld. Because both classes emphasized the deep similarities of teaching, storytelling, and interactive design, the goal was to explore how different storyworlds are used to understand the real world.
Dozens of students across eight teams (many of whom had not met) collaborated to create independent realms on one of two planets (depending on which class/program they belonged to). The “Navia” Region was written by three UConn Digital Media & Design MFA students enrolled in both classes at the same time (which is why it appears on both maps).
Unbeknownst to the students, there was a backstory connecting the two worlds; this was a final surprise reveal, that the project was a real-time exploration of our collective adaptation to life during the COVID-19 pandemic (including the virus itself, adaptation to distance teaching/learning, changing complex interlocking social and cultural systems, etc.).
The POLYKOSMIA World Anvil wiki serves as a catalog of the project development process and final product, a backdrop to dozens of new stories written by dozens of students in the form of games, illustrations, lesson plans, storyboards, encyclopedias, and more. Some examples include:
Northbound (Interactive Story) – Devin Quinn
The Children of Queen Simone (Historical Account) – Joshua Hirshfield
The Hunt (Graphic Novel) – Mackenzie Fox