The Jheronimus Bosch 500 Foundation was the first organisation in the Netherlands to organise an international pitch competition for an original, artistic game. Sixteen entries have been submitted presenting a basic concept for an artistic game, inspired by the work of Jheronimus Bosch (± 1450-1516). Five of the participants will go on to the finals. Eventually one designer will get the opportunity to produce and publish his or her Bosch Art Game.
The foundation will announce the five finalists today, 1 February. Each of them will get funding to develop a playable prototype. The prototypes will be published in July, after which the jury will choose the most appealing game. The winner will get the opportunity to fully develop the game and to introduce and market it no later than 2016, the international Jheronimus Bosch year.
The entries range from an interactive, online experience of the triptych Garden of Earthly Delights and an installation that merges novel digital techniques with a traditional mural, up to a visual novel and a classic “first person adventure” game. Hallucinations, time travel, transgression from realistic into surrealistic worlds, bizarre creatures, and of course hell and heaven, all have a place in the designed concepts.