Reeya
Reeya
The Delphi Version
Back in the Nineties, virtual creatures were all the rage: Countless kids were tending to tamagotchis every day, computer magazines presented applications like Fin Fin and the MOPy fish swam across our screens.
Around the turn of the millenium I took my first steps into the world of programming, using PASCAL and Delphi. After about two school years I knew enough to craft my own virtual pet in my spare time.
Originally, Reeya was just a placeholder - a quickly doodled mix of dog and pony with which I could test my ideas. I had planned to replace her with cool 3D rendered images of a different animal later, for example a spider. But the more time I spent with this scribble, the more it grew onto me. So, until I finished school, I created more and more animations with exactly this creature.
The Plushie
Then university began, and I had less and less time and motivation for private programming projects. I made plans to port Reeya to a different programming language, but never got around to it. So the project was put on ice while I was slowly but steadily heading towards a burn-out. 2016 I got to the point where I needed professional help to cope with the daily grind. One of the strategies I learned for this was to use sensory perceptions for escaping the spiralling thoughts and finding my way back to the here and now. With that I knew that I wanted to take a little plushie to my office.
And who would be better suited for this job than Reeya? After all she was one of the main reasons why I wanted to study this subject in the first place. And I used to love sewing plushies in the past, so I picked up needle, thread and grey velvet and got to work. Now a cuddly little Reeya accompanies me to university every day and reminds me why I am there.
The Unity Version
In the meantime I have started re-creating her program using the Unity game engine. In this version she's hopping through a forest landscape in 3D - but still as a gray-red stick figure. The program is still at the very beginning, and I'm still experimenting with the approach I want to use for her artificial intelligence... but let's see where this journey is going!