I caught a post last night on Brands in Games (Link) that made me smile. Apparently some modders have embedded the original DOOM videogame into the more recent Doom3 game using some embedded interactive surfaces stuff (don’t ask me, I’ve only looked at the pretty pictures… for now).

Of course games inside games isn’t new. The guy apparently most responsible for this effort, Bernd Kreimeier, admits this. Tringo was actually coded “inside” the Second Life virtual world, so it’s actually gone beyond this already. But this latest effort reminded me of a previous thread of mine on the Core77 forum suggesting designers should be using videogames for real world interactive design problem-solving (reLink).

Imagine creating a virtual office and in it a virtual computer. On that computer is some software like the open source vCrib application I mentioned earlier (reLink). Good so far. Okay, so while inside that virtual space using the virtual computer to run the embedded vCrib app, the real world is affected by the subvirtual application. Sounds like a way for a designer to put him/herself into the role of a typical office worker running vCrib to manage devices at home (because, of course, the designer sees the real world effects).

Maybe the idea will catch on as people doing these sorts of things get more exposure and attention. One thing for sure: seeing these images makes me want to go back to modeling high-rez objects.

{Image Copyright © 2005 Bernd Kreimeier}