Week 10 – Relevant Literature and Resources
This week, for ease of access, a list of relevant literature and resources has been compiled.
Relevant Literature:
Historical
The relevant literature for this project encompasses studies on Korean history, particularly the Three Kingdoms period, as well as literature on educational game design and narrative development. Samguk Sagi (Korean: 삼국사기; Hanja: 三國史記; lit. History of the Three Kingdoms) is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. Completed in 1145, it is well known in Korea as the oldest surviving chronicle of Korean history. The Samguk Sagi is written in Classical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea, and its compilation was ordered by King Injong of Goryeo (r. 1122–1146) and undertaken by the government official and historian Kim Bu-sik and a team of junior scholars. The document has been digitised by the National Institute of Korean History and is available online with Modern Korean translation in Hangul and original text in Classical Chinese. [1]
Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms is a collection of legends, folktales and historical accounts relating to the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla), as well as to other periods and states before, during and after the Three Kingdoms period. Samguk yusa is a historical record compiled by the Buddhist monk Il-yeon in 1281 (the 7th year of King Chungnyeol of Goryeo) in the late Goryeo Dynasty. It is the earliest extant record of the Dangun legend, which records the founding of Gojoseon as the first Korean nation. The Samguk yusa is National Treasure No. 306. [2]
Cartography
Korean History in Maps by Michael Shin will provide historical context and insights into the key events and figures of the era. Korean History in Maps is a beautifully presented, full-colour atlas covering all periods of Korean history from prehistoric times to the present day. It is the first atlas of its kind to be specifically designed for students in English-speaking countries. There is a map for each era in Korean history, showing every major kingdom or polity that existed on the Korean peninsula, and maps are also included for topics of additional historical interest, including each major war that took place. In addition, the atlas contains chronologies, lists of monarchs, and overviews of the politics, economy, society, and culture for each era which are complemented by numerous photos and full colour images of artifacts, paintings, and architectural structures. This fascinating historical atlas is a complete reference work and unique teaching tool for all scholars and students of Korean and East Asian history. [3]
Another useful source can be found here: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/04/113_244492.html, where the history of Korean Maps is detailed with examples.
Game Theory
In terms of educational game design, works like Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman and The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell have been invaluable in understanding how to create engaging gameplay mechanics, meaningful narratives, and effective learning outcomes.
Relevant Alternate Sources:
Board Games:
The White Castle is a fantastic (and bite-size) look at diplomacy in feudal Japan, which takes a concept that wouldn’t translate well to video games and makes it interesting through simple dice drafting and worker placement mechanics.
Iki is a game about Japanese Markets, but this scores big authenticity points by making the game currency tactile versions of ancient Japanese currency. It’s little details like that, that you subconsciously appreciate.
Tokaido is another unusual game that takes the simple concept of walking across Japan, not well suited to video games, and makes it interesting and relaxing through its art and low stress gameplay.
Union Stockyards is a very historically accurate look at factory work in the late 20s and conveys a lot of this through its cards, flavour text and instruction manual.
Autobahn has probably the most interesting implementation of historical events as a board game mechanic, with the fall of the Berlin wall being the catalyst to the endgame, though the gameplay itself is a bit dry and over-complicated for my liking.
Route East is a travel game that’s very simple but has really nice art cards. The whole point of the game is to make you appreciate Asian landmarks and the cards definitely convey that.
In terms of lower and upper levels of complexity in mechanics, Carcassonne and Tapestry are both excellent examples of how both very simple and very complex games can both be engaging, satisfying and most importantly, deep.
For systems design and integration, Dinosaur Island is a great exercise into how a game can have 4 separate game boards with different mechanics, that still feed into one another and intrinsically link to each other.
Scythe is also useful to look at from a different angle. It’s set in an alternate post WW2 Eastern Europe, but you take on the role of one person journeying across the land, interacting with civilians and other diplomats in ways that can be friendly or hostile and might strike some inspiration for your concepts.
Escape the Dark Sector is another different approach, in a co-operative, procedurally generated narrative experience, quite different from most other board games.
Video Games:
Ghost of Tsushima is excellent. It is fairly accurate in its historical portrayal of Japan and has a wide cast of interesting, well written characters to interact with.
Sekiro is also fantastic, though its learning curve is very steep. Visually beautiful and leaves some authenticity at the door to lean more into mythology and create an engaging experience that still feels authentic in its environments and storytelling, despite all of the monsters roaming around in that world.
Chants of Sennar is a wild card recommendation, but if you’re as interested in languages as I am, it’s fantastic. It’s a simple puzzle game about exploring four nations and translating between their languages, despite not speaking any of them. Could be another interesting angle to look at in more depth.
Horizon is a masterful display of distinct character design across factions and nations, with really fun gameplay to boot.
Civilization is a great blend of board games and digital games, packed with historical accuracy and information, while also being so inauthentic that you can launch a nuclear bomb at Julius Caesar, yet done in such a way that you never bat an eyelid.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits also draws on some eastern inspirations for themes but is a great example of how you can use a limited selection of mechanics in numerous creative ways to get the most out of an otherwise fairly small game. Plus, it’s visually stunning and a show of how visuals can sometimes be everything for a game.
Art Style
Watercolour is a style that feels era appropriate for the intended historical setting. Personally, I think The Great Wave off Kanagawa is beautiful and if I were making a Japanese inspired game, I would get card art done in a matching style, which is another subtle way of feeling authentic by the way your game looks. As for games with great art styles in general, Everdell is not exactly watercolour, but does have a fantastic art style that’s very evocative of the Redwall books. Wingspan is also more subtle and muted in its art, but still very pleasing to look at. As above, Kena: Bridge of Spirits has a wonderful art style for digital medium, it’s basically a playable Pixar movie.
While I’m not a fan of racing games, I can’t deny that NFS: Unbound sets itself apart from its genre with its divergent art and stylistic VFX choices. Dredge is another game with quite unique art, if slightly bizarre and grimy. Dishonoured has fantastic examples of more classic caricature style characters in video games. And surprisingly, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX has quite an appealing watercolour palette on the in-game assets, especially the environments.
Narrative and Storytelling
In terms of narrative, Baldur’s Gate III is an absolute paragon of storytelling and entanglement, with some main characters’ stories feeding into the main plot, some happening in tandem, and some of their stories even entwining with each other in endless, interesting ways. The best example of this done practically can be seen in Telltale’s The Walking Dead it’s hard to explain succinctly, but the game gives you these pivotal moments where you have to choose between A or B, the story will diverge for a while, and then you end up back at a point where that choice didn’t really matter, and you’ll end up at the same place in the end no matter what you picked. You don’t notice on a first playthrough, but on a second, it’s very noticeable and you can envision the flowchart of how all of the characters get to where they need to be, based on the player decisions, and how it all ties up at certain points.
All in all, these literature and research sources will be used to draw inspiration from as I continue to flesh out my final idea (and as I prepare to create my first prototype).
References:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samguk_sagi
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samguk_yusa
[3] https://www.amazon.es/Korean-History-Maps-Prehistory-Twenty-First/dp/1107490235
