When the actual game kicks off, the world is equally eye-catching. The cutscene, with which the game begins, plays out (like all the subsequent ones) in the style of shadow puppetry, beautiful done, and immediately draws one into the world. In her quest, she is helped by various gods, who also double as voice-over narrators throughout the game. The game revolves around Raji, the protagonist, looking for her brother Golu, who has been kidnapped by demons. One of the biggest draws of the game, even more so for non-Indian players one would assume, is its unique setting. But as much the game promises something novel, it falters too often to be truly compelling. The game, which can be completed in roughly as much time as it would take one to watch Lawrence (yours truly managed it in five-ish hours), is an ambitious undertaking considering it’s the studio’s first and has not had the most straightforward development course. Technically, they are there but playing a part of no more than that of a distant bystander here and there.ĭeveloped by Nodding Heads Games, an independent studio based in Pune, the action-adventure-puzzle-platformer, out on Nintendo Switch as of now, not only draws heavily on the country’s ancient epics (as the name would suggest), but zealously presents its vision. Erika Holter, Una Ulrike Schäfer, Sebastian Schwesinger: Simulating the Ancient World: Pitfalls and Opportunities of Using Game Engines for Archaeological Research EPILOGUE 14.To say one does not come across many video games set in India and/or exploring the country’s mythology or culture, would be akin to saying there are not many female characters in Lawrence of Arabia. Alexander Flegler: The Complexities and Nuances of Portraying History in Age of Empires 13. Maciej Paprocki: Mortal Immortals: Deicide of Greek Gods in Apotheon and its Role in the Greek Mythic Storyworld 12. Neville Morley: Choose your own Counterfactual: The Melian Dialogue as Text-Based Adventure 11. Nico Nolden: Playing with an Ancient Veil: Commemorative Culture and the Staging of Ancient History within the Playful Experience of the MMORPG The Secret World PART IV: BUILDING AN ANCIENT WORLD. Ross Clare: Postcolonial Play in Ancient World Computer Role-playing Games 9. Roger Travis: The Open-World RPG as Formulaic Epic 8.
Jeremiah McCall: Digital Legionaries: Video Game Simulations of the Face of Battle in the Roman Republic PART III: DIGITAL EPICS. Dominic Machado: Battle Narratives from Ancient Historiography to Total War: Rome II 6. MARTIAL RE-PRESENTATIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD 5. Sian Beavers: The Representation of Women in Ryse: Son of Rome PART II: A WORLD AT WAR. Andrew Gardner and Tristan French: Playing in a 'Real' Past: Classical Action Games and Authenticity 4. David Serrano Lozano: Ludus (not) Over: Video Games and Popular Perceptions of Ancient Past Re-Shaping 3. Christian Rollinger: An Archaeology of Ancient Historical Video Games PART I: A BRAVE OLD WORLD.
List of illustrations Glossary of video game terms Notes on Contributors Preface PROLOGUE Playing with the Ancient World: An Introduction to Classical Antiquity in Video Games 1. In doing so, it delivers the first state-of-the-art account of both the wide array of 'ancient' video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field. It presents cutting-edge research in classics and classical receptions, game studies and archaeogaming, adopting different perspectives and combining papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants. This collection of essays fills this gap with a dedicated study of receptions, remediations and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of classical reception.
Prehistoric video games for computers with women series#
With successful series such as “Assassin's Creed” or "Civilization” selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences' perceptions of the past. This volume explores the varied depictions of the ancient world in video games and demonstrates the potential challenges of games for scholars as well as the applications of game engines for educational and academic purposes. From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world.