The Ark Project is a computer-based 3D first-person virtual experience. The project experiments with new methods of narrative and investigates storytelling in relation to interaction and 3D virtual environments. The Ark Project builds on previous research into interactive narrative and methods of interaction through the use of object-based narrative elements and overlapping layers of themed space. New relationships between environment and narrative are explored through branching narratives and journey structures.

The narrative of The Ark Project operates via the method of “narrative archaeology”, through which users uncover the story through exploration and interaction. Centred on the scientific excavation and exploration of an ancient interstellar ark, the Ark story explores themes of the natural versus the controlled and the origins of life on earth through the investigation of the ark’s purpose and mysterious origins.