philip isles (isles@usc.

edu)

Philip Isles Julian Bleeker

CTCS []

Interactive Experience
As Myth
A Video Game Concept

Introduction

Joseph Campbell, the preeminent comparative mythologist of the 20th Century,

studied the significance of mythology in society. ‘Dreams are private myths,’ Campbell

wrote, ‘and myths are public dreams.’ Just as the dream symbols emerge from the

dreamer’s unconscious, so does the myth emerge from the collective unconscious of a

society, rich with deep, symbolic imagery that points just beyond the understandable. In

primitive cultures, shamans (or witch doctors) were responsible for providing its tribe

with relevant myths. Today, Campbell wrote, the storytellers and artists have taken on

this role. Myths are stories that people relate to. Although myths may differ according to

its place of origin, they contain variations of the same themes. According to Campbell,

the four functions of mythology are:

1. To establish and enforce the code, or rules, of the people to which the mythology
belongs.
2. To give one a sense of wonder and participation in the mystery of the universe.
3. To fill every aspect of one's surroundings with this wonder.
4. To guide humans through the various stages of life.

When Lucas created ‘ Star Wars,’ he was mythologizing the new surroundings of

space that society had just begun to incorporate into its worldviews. Science had

expanded the public’s horizons beyond the Earth, and Star Wars supplied this new world

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with an appropriate mythology. But what will the next environment consist of—after

outer-space, what is there? In Campbell’s "Historical Atlas of World Mythology,"

Campbell wrote that the next environment is inner-space. Science has expanded our

horizons of the world at the sub-atomic level. The following project attempts to

mythologize the microcosm of which we are made, yet never see.

The dominant form of media through which a public receives stories is the one ripest

for modern myths. Cinema is the most recent form of media to make itself accessible to

myth. The classic story of Star Wars is an excellent example of the archetypal Hero

Myth, updated and adapted for modern times. Mythology has yet to cross the gap from

cinema to video game; successfully doing so will create, like Star Wars, an unforgettably

successful experience, both commercially and artistically. This game will attempt to

fulfill—to some extent—the last three functions of myth.

Structure of the Heroic Cycle

In its simplest form, the Hero’s Journey is one of exile, wandering, and return:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of
supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a
decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious
adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.1

The Structure of the game will follow the cycle laid out by Joseph Campbell of the

traditional Hero Quest. In this cycle, Campbell has documented the variations or

characteristics of each section of the cycle: 2

1
Campbell, Joseph. “The Hero With A Thousand Faces.” Princeton University Press.
Princeton, New Jersey. 1949.
2
Adapted from ‘Faces,’ By Joseph Campbell.

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Call to
Adventure Elixir
Threshold Crossing
Brother-battle
Dragon battle Help
Offering er
Charm
THRESHOLD OF ADVENTURE Return
Dismemberment Resurrection
Crucifixion Rescue
Threshold Struggle
Abduction Tests
Night-Sea Journey
Wonder journey
Whale’s Belly
Helper Flight – (transformation
s flight, obstacle flight)

Sacred Marriage
Father Atonement
Apotheosis

Elixir theft (bride theft, fire-theft)

The following outline describes the phases in the above illustration:

1. Hero is lured (1.1), carried away (1.2), or else voluntarily proceeds (1.3) to the

threshold of adventure (Call to Adventure)

2. At the threshold, he encounters a shadowy presence that guards the passage.

2.1. The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the

dark (brother-battle, dragon battle; offering, charm).

3. Beyond the threshold, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely

intimate forces, some of which

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3.1. Severely threaten him (test).

3.2. Give him magical aid (helpers).

4. When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme

ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be presented as

4.1. The hero’s union with the goddess mother of the world (sacred marriage).

4.2. His recognition by the father-creator (father atonement).

4.3. His own divinization (apotheosis).

4.4. If the powers have remained unfriendly to him: his theft of the boon he came to

gain (bride-theft, fire-theft).

5. The final work is that of return.

5.1. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection

(emissary)

5.2. If not, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight, obstacle flight).

6. At the return threshold the powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the

kingdom of dread (return, resurrection).

6.1. The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir).

GAME OUTLINE

The following is an outline for the narrative of the proposed game.

A strange disease is afflicting the Earth, The Hero is in a quarantine boat with a scientist

and the scientist’s beautiful daughter. The daughter and Hero are in love. However, the

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Hero is incapable of asking her to wed him because he is afraid—he can’t offer her the

ring he has been trying to give her for a long time.

CALL TO ADVENTURE: The boat passes a special nuclear power plant: the Scientist

is stricken with the disease. The Scientist puts his daughter in the machine: The Hero

thinks The Scientist is crazy, tries to rescue her by fighting the Scientist. THRESHOLD

GUARDIAN.

When The Hero overcomes the scientist, a strange BALL OF ENERGY radiates from the

Hero’s chest. The Scientist tells The Hero: 1. To Collect all these energy balls throughout

his quest. 2. His daughter cannot be taken out of the machine until the cure for his disease

is found; she holds the cure within her genes. 3. She cannot leave the machine, he says,

because: ‘I am the machine.’

The Hero enters the machine CROSSING THE THRESHOLD. The machine resembles

the cellular membrane of a human cell.

Road Of Trials – The Cell

The Hero finds himself inside a single cell in The Scientist’s body, under attack by the

disease. The machine ha reduced his size and transferred him into the cell. The Hero

Disguises himself as a disease cell: He must not be discovered, staying in formation with

the rest of the enemy cells. The Hero sees that the disease works like bees. Disease cells

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are carrying the mysterious energy balls to the hive and using it for power. The hero

fights Disease Cells, barely makes it into the nucleus of the cell.

Nucleus

The hero meets an army consisting of warriors that look like the scientist’s daughter. The

Hero helps the army defend the outer walls of the nucleus. HELPERS. They retreat into

a DNA molecule, where the Hero is taken to a machine like the one in the boat,

containing the Daughter, asleep: She will not waken until the disease is cured.

The army tells him he must go deeper into the atom to discover the cure. They will

defend the cell as long as they can.

The Hero moves into the atom.

The Hero must slow down time and pass through the atomic field that is everywhere at

once. Inside, he confronts an ‘evil, infected Hero doppelganger.’ That is to say, an evil

version of the Hero. The hero defeats him, finds out the energy balls are Fear. The cells

are storing this Fear in the nuclear reactor on the shore—this is what caused the Scientist

to contract the disease. The Doppelganger is still alive though, and manages to escape.

The Hero is discovered by the disease cells; he must RETURN to the normal world via

MAGICAL FLIGHT:

Molecule (nucleus) - Runs from the now infected army, leaving Fear energy behind to

stop army. OBSTACLE FLIGHT

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The Hero rescues the sleeping Daughter, cures her by releasing his fear of marriage and

slipping the ring on her finger. ELIXIR

THRESHOLD STRUGGLE At the cell wall, The Hero Finds his evil doppelganger

holding the daughter hostage. The Hero defeats Doppelganger. Infected army is cured.

RETURN

The Hero exits the body of the Scientist, where he returns to normal size in room. The

daughter wakes up, as does the Scientist. The three of them must destroy the nuclear

reactor responsible for the disease. When they try to warn the reactor, they realize the

authorities are infected and are trying to kill them. They destroy the reactor, saving the

world. BOON

Hero Cycle, Adapted for Project:

Call = Scientist
stricken with Destruction of
disease Elixir Power Plant

Return
Rescue – Scientist
Threshold Crossing and Daughter
Brother-battle – the rescued from
fight with the scientist THRESHOLD TO ADVENTURE = disease.
THE SCIENTIST’S MACHINE
Whale’s Belly – The Threshold
Scientist’s body Cell -(disguise/trickery), Struggle Final
Tests Nucleus battle with
DNA Doppelganger at
cell membrane.
DNA Army in Nucleus Helper Flight – Magic flight from
s Atom to normal Size,
leaving Fear in wake of
infected army. (obstacle
flight)
The Atom – Doppelganger (supreme
ordeal)
Elixir theft – cure to the disease = release
of fear

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Commentary

Science is often equated with the religion of the modern world. The scientist, wearing

his white lab coat, constantly awes the layman with his perpetual efforts to learn more

and more about less and less. Science is therefore the backbone of this mythological

journey, as the forces of science are constantly pushing present day perceptions in new,

unpredictable ways. The fact that the Scientist’s daughter holds the cure to the disease,

yet cannot overcome it on her own, symbolizes the secrets of genetic coding that we are

currently trying to understand.

The strange world that the hero passes into is in fact the world of the body—the same

kind of vehicle he has lived in his entire life. The world of the Hero is represented in the

world of a human body, going deeper and deeper into the body’s microcosmic structures

until we arrive at the nucleus of all nuclei. It is at this point where the Hero must

ultimately confront himself. If he cannot overcome those parts of him that manifest from

Fear, he cannot go further. For, as Campbell writes, ‘The agony of breaking through

personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth,’3 in searching for an answer, the

hero always finds that this answer is wrapped up in some part of himself that he must first

let go of.

The figure of the Scientist’s daughter, frozen in a sleeping state, ‘is a familiar figure

in fairy tale and myth…she is the paragon of all paragons of beauty, the reply to all

desire, the bliss-bestowing goal of every hero’s quest.’4 The Hero’s fear of embracing her

love parallels with the World’s fear, represented by The Disease, which threatens to

destroy the Daughter, the Scientist, and the World.

3
Faces, Campbell. P. 190.
4
Ibid. p. 110-111.

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In a more developed state, I believe the narrative of the game will draw a player in the

same way a great story does. The majority of games challenge the player, but do not

connect with the player in the same way a great work of Art does. Exploration of the

body, down to the atomic level, is the means by which I hope to provide the player with a

sense of wonder about the universe. Everyone is at least somewhat familiar with the

story’s locations. The different microscopic levels of the body make up the most

immediate and intimate environment anyone ever experiences. It is my hope that by

allowing these environments to serve the story—on the basis of both individual moments

and the broad, underlying hero cycle—I will be able to bring them to life, consequently

invoking that same sense of wonder in one’s surroundings—or body—that Campbell

teaches as a function of mythology.

But what about the fourth function of mythology? How does this story guide one

through various stages of life? The release of Fear—of learning to accept Fear as one of

the primary obstacles to personal development of any kind, no matter what stage of

development he or she may be in—is vital to one’s evolution, from beginning to end.