Islands Without Islands

A screenshot of Islands Without Islands's thumbnail page, which is a light blue illustration of one of California's Channel Islands and various body parts, foliage, and items belonging to each animal, plant, and human member of the islands' ecosystem.

Play Islands Without Islands for free in your browser here: Islands Without Islands Game Link.

Islands Without Islands is an early 2000s-inspired interactive ecosystem of California's Channel Islands, which examines the roles that 14 different animal, plant, human, and chemical presences play in the islands' ecology.

Created as a final project for a college course in digital literature, Islands Without Islands explores how colonialism, pollution, and non-native wildlife impact the island's interconnected residents.

SKILLS: Animal Illustration, Ecological Research, Educational Design, Game Development, HTML/CSS, Interactive Design, Scientific Illustration

SOFTWARE: Paint Tool SAI, Twine

YEAR: 2024

Game Stills

A still of the game featuring images of various members of the California Channel Islands, including animals, plants, humans, and an introduced chemical compound. The navigation schemes allow the player to click on images, highlighted text, or a random passage button to learn more about the islands' ecology A still of the game featuring the island fox's info page, going through the roles they play in population control and seed dispersal, as well as how they recovered from the brink of extinction. A still of the game featuring the island manzanita's info page, going through the roles they play as a food source and a soil erosion preventor, as well as how they were affected by invasive pig populations overgrazing. A still of the game featuring the Island Chumash communities' info page, going through their use of tomol canoes to travel, their relationships with other island and coastal communities as well as wildlife, and how conservation efforts are now working with local Chumash communities to restore their sacred island sites to their original, pre-colonial conditions. There are also links on this page leading to Chumash-led and partnered organizations aiming to revitalize and celebrate Island Chumash culture.

The interactive mechanics involve exploring each island presence's info page and navigating to other info pages by clicking on hyperlinked text. There are also external links leading to organizations led by or partnered with Chumash people and conservationists.

Inspired by early 2000s hypertext fiction involving interconnected passages and multiple navigation schemes, Islands Without Islands keeps track of visited pages and allows the player to see how each member of the ecosystem connects with others, eventually coming full circle back to the starting page.