Vanitas

Credits

Developed & published by Tale of Tales
in February 2010
for iPhone & iPod touch.

This work was commissioned for the Art History of Games symposium and exhibition by the Savannah College of Art and Design and the Georgia Institute of Technology Program in Digital Media.

Design:
Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn

Modelling, texturing & animation:
Auriea Harvey

Programming, sound & effects:
Michaël Samyn

Music:
Zoë Keating

Thanks to Alex Mayhew, Marcel Samyn, Ian Bogost and David Lu for testing.

Sound effects based on sounds from freesound.org by adcbicycle, deathpie, Feegle, florian_reinke, FreqMan, fritzsound, gyzhor, HerbertBoland, kemitix, RHumphries, Robinhood76, sagetyrtle, Schalkalwis, shewbox, StarRock, SuGu14 and yawfle. Thank you for sharing!

Software: Unity, Blender, Photoshop, Cool Edit

Quotes

Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas.
- The Bible, Book of Ecclesiastes Ecc.1.2

All is to no purpose, all the ways of man are to no purpose.
-The Bible in Basic English (translation of the above)

Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow.
- The Bible, Psalms 144:4

Now is the time for drinking, now the time for dancing.
- Horace, Odes, I.37 (on the death of Cleopatra)

Memento mori.
- Latin proverb (meaning "Remember you must die")

All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
- The bible, Ecclesiastes 1:8

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- The Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:14

Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.
- Milan Kundera, The unbearable lightness of Being

Death is an evil; the gods have so judged; had it been good, they would die
- Sappho

Time is what we are, though we cannot think it.
- Patricia De Martelaere, A philosophical tale about our time

Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.
- Arthur Rimbaud, Une Saison en Enfer (translation of "La vie est la farce ˆ mener par tous.")

The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.
- Oscar Wilde, Salome

Everything flows; nothing remains.
- Heraclitus

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.
- Socrates, Sec. 42

Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out.
- Heraclitus

Without hope we live in desire.
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, The Inferno, Canto IV, line 42 (translation of "Sanza speme vivemo in disio.")

We love life not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra, Part I, Chapter 7 (translation of "Es ist wahr: wir lieben das Leben, nicht, weil wir an's Leben, sondern weil wir an's Lieben gewšhnt sind.")

Man can do what he wants but he cannot want what he wants.
- Arthur Schopenhauer, Prize Essay On The Freedom Of The Will (translation of "Der Mensch kann tun was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will.")

More light!
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, last words

Death rides on every passing breeze, He lurks in every flower; Each season has its own disease, Its peril every hour.
-Bishop Reginald Heber, At a Funeral

Life like an empty dream flits by.
- Jorge Manrique, Coplas por la muerte de su padre (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow may be dying.
- Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

The best way to fill time is to waste it.
- Marguerite Duras, Wasting Time, Practicalities (translation of "Ce qui remplit le temps c'est vraiment de le perdre.", La Vie matérielle)

And the windows become sand/The ink becomes water/The desks become trees/The chalk becomes a cliff/The pen holder becomes a bird
- Jacques Prévert, Paroles, Page d'écriture (translation of "Et les vitres redeviennent sable/l'encre redevient eau/les pupitres redeviennent arbres/la craie redevient falaise/le porte-plume redevient oiseau.")

Instructions

Slide the lid of the box up to open it.
Three randomly selected objects appear.

Pause for a moment. Reflect on what you see.

Drag the objects around or tilt the box to create new compositions.

Close the lid and wait until three new objects fall in the box.
Then open it again.

Three identical objects add a gold star on the lid of the box.
Consider how lucky you are.

A new stage begins after opening the box 5 times. Some objects change over time.
Every 3 stages, new objects are added.
There are 12 stages in total.