In this dissertation we rely on the literary work of Italo Calvino, ‘Invisible Cities’, attempting an interpretation of his world from our perspective, through a video game. Our goal is both to portray this world and to roam and interact within it.
The empire of Calvino's cities is transferred into a human organism that is mapped out. Its constituent bodies form the urban centers. Their anatomies create their design, the arteries become rivers and seas, the veins turn into roads, the cells into buildings. While the visible elements of a city are easily traceable, the invisible ones can only be discovered by a wanderer. The design of our own empire's cities is followed by our willingness to introduce this wanderer into them, so that he can explore and experience them, as well as interact with their environment.
In the game we have created, the organism that hosts the invisible cities gets sick of a virus that infects them, eliminating its buildings. Their complete disappearance implies the necrosis of every city-organ and, therefore, of the whole organism. A nanobot [ELECTRA] is inserted into the diseased body in order to destroy the virus and save the body. She takes on the role of M. Polo as an explorer, but this time in a female form, in honor of all the references that have been made by Calvino to the female gender.
Man is exiled to the empire of the body in which he resides. As an emperor, he knows that it will be destroyed, although he has not been able to explore it. His greatest fear is time, which - like a disease - attacks the states of his body, one by one.