Video Games and the Humanities: A Call for Scholarly Games

Last spring I wrote a post on why video games should be considered valued tools for teaching non-Western narratives of the past [Video Games in the Classroom and the Non-Western World]. For this post, I want to expand on that piece and help to explain why it is imperative we work on ways to both create games and use games in our teaching. Students coming into our classrooms often have been exposed to video games in one way or another, from small mobile games to large major studio series like Assassin’s Creed. These games not only shape the student imagination of other places and societies but also as a form of media form an industry in which many of our students will end up in or meaningfully engaging with in some way. The growing size of the Video Games industry should not only push us to incorporate games that tell interactive stories in our classes, but also push us to directly engage in this medium and make our own games built off of our research. I have previously expanded on my own early forays into doing this using Twine to make my own text-based game known as The Hajj Trail [A Twine Journey to Mecca]. However, I plan to build on this project using available digital tools to make a more immersive learning and game experience for students in order to present to them an imaginary version of the Ottoman world through a video game.

The Games Industry by the Numbers

According to IBIS World the Video Game Industry saw a 3.9% market growth from 2018 through 2023 with a total revenue of $106.8 billion dollars in just the United States alone [IBIS World Analytics], about three times the size of the film industry in the United State [IBIS World Analytics]. Crucially, for students in our classrooms seeking employment after completing a humanities degree, the Video Game industry offers geographical diversity across the United States and the world. This means students wouldn’t be limited to relocating to specific cities such as Los Angeles or New York for job opportunities, which I know is an important factor for students at the public university I teach at. Moreover, approximately 14% of jobs within the industry focus on narrative, writing, and research, rather than solely on programming or game design [2023 GDC State of the Game Industry]. By incorporating games into our classes and guiding students through a simple game-making process, like Twine, we can bridge their interest in video games with their shared enthusiasm for the humanities. This approach could be highly beneficial for both students and the humanities, particularly in helping students explore diverse career paths after graduation. It aligns with the efforts from fields like History which are seeking new pathways to connect students with emerging industries. For instance, after considering these numbers, my history department has established an interdisciplinary Game Studies minor at my university to encourage our history students to learn the basic skills of game design and development with the hope that some students will combine their interest in games with their love of history.

Building a Scholarly Game: Expanding on the Hajj Trail

My first game was The Hajj Trail which we made through the text-based open-source storytelling platform Twine [The Hajj Trail]. While Twine proved to be a useful entryway for me to combine my research on the Ottoman world with game development, I have always wanted to expand beyond it and, while putting together the Game Studies minor at my institution, I decided to start learning the basic tools in which to make an educational game beyond the simple Twine format. This new project is called Seyahat: A Journey to Mecca and serves as the successor to The Hajj Trail following the same research and narrative design while utilizing different game design. This project will utilize the free version of Unity for the game engine, Inkle for text narrative, and Inkscape for artwork. One of the benefits of these programs is the abundance of free online resources available, such as YouTube tutorials, Discord groups, and how-to threads. These resources can guide beginners like myself through the fundamental C# coding required for Unity, as well as provide steps for integrating Unity with custom artwork from Inkscape for animation sprites and dialogue trees for the game created in Inkle. With these tools in hand, the goal of Seyahat is to help realize my original vision for The Hajj Trail, which was constrained by the limitations of Twine being a platform designed for text-based stories.

Figure 1: View in Unity of the Working Title Page of Seyahat: A Journey to Mecca

Seyahat endeavors to replicate the historical narrative outlined in The Hajj Trail while introducing a cohesive visual style for the game, departing from a disparate collection of images used in The Hajj Trail. The visual direction for this new project seeks to depict the Ottoman world in the artistic style akin to early modern Ottoman manuscript painting, mirroring the perspective of the Ottoman elite, and present to students how someone in the seventeenth-century Ottoman world would imagine the stories told through the game. A game which does something similar to this but for early modern Europe is Pentiment which depicts reformation Germany in European manuscript painting style. Seyahat will be nowhere near the quality of Pentiment, as that game was completed by a Microsoft game studio, but the Ottoman manuscript painting style will help to displace orientalist perspectives present in European paintings featured throughout the The Hajj Trail. By offering a unified Ottoman visual style and incorporating an embodied player character within the painting scene, Seyahat aims to advance the foundational goals of The Hajj Trail‘s design. It seeks to present an authentic portrayal of the Ottoman world, grounded in the experiences of historical actors, as a means to counter prevalent misconceptions and harmful stereotypes regarding the Middle East, Islam, and the early modern Ottoman world.

Figure 2: View in Inkle of the Dialogue for the Opening Scene in Seyahat: A Journey to Mecca

Conclusion

As the Video Game industry continues to grow, it is crucial for scholars in the humanities to both use games to connect to students in our classrooms while also pushing ourselves to make our own games which can help to counter prevailing narratives and negative perceptions of the non-Western world. Many scholars perceive game development as being far beyond their expertise and ability. However, with the continuous growth of the games industry and the emergence of increasingly user-friendly tools for independent game creation, scholars are more able to engage directly in game development. This presents an opportunity for scholars to convey the narratives of their research through new digital mediums, thereby connecting their academic work with the media that significantly influences the lives of many of our students.

         Figure 3: Screenshot from the Game Pentiment (2022) by Obsidian Entertainment

Tyler Kynn, Ph.D.

Central Connecticut State University