Video Games to Learn History

[vickiespencer]

I found this interesting article about learning history through video games. It made me think of a forum member,  @katakatica who is creating her own video game. @katakatica what is your game going to be about. Or maybe you do not want to share? 🤔

[katakatica]

4 hours ago, vickiespencer said:

Or maybe you do not want to share

Oh, I am beyond happy to talk about my game! I wouldn't bring it up (when talking about outsourcing/etc. if I wasn't! 

So - to clarify, I am working on a dark romance-horror type visual novel. The main character's actions will decide what happens (to them and the world itself...) BUT there is more to that. I was deeply inspired by Disney (and the gruesome origin stories of some princesses) so I came up with my own. 

For now, the plot is still ever-changing, so it's hard to explain that exactly, but the process of working on the game so far is really educational. I considered outsourcing EVERYTHING for it (including the writing....) but realised that is impossible (partially because of financial reasons but also because I don't trust others...that much!) So what I am doing now is.... planning. I'm deciding on art, (or artists, moreso), on the story itself, on how I will make the game (while I was going to go with Renpy for my first try, some are telling me Unity has a plug-in for a software I use already so..it'd make the game for me (...that's not really what they are saying. But it would be helpful...)

And the list goes on.

Video games for me aren't necessarily educational (despite that I have written for several, I just don't often play to be learning things!) I love playing to read about or see new places, (and to let out some pent-up energy haha. I am luckily surrounded by game devs so I have plenty of time to do 'research' about them (aka, play), too!

 

[moikchap]

I have Visual Novels "on deck" as the type of project to "graduate" to after I've gotten my D&D books finished. Where will you release your game? I'm probably going  use ren'py as well, and post to Steam and Itch.io. From what I understand, there isn't an easy way to get ren'py stuff on Kongregate. I don't know of any other sites which host VNs.

I feel like games can have a high educational impact if they're game-first, lesson-second. Like, Age of Empires gets you in the door with its mechanics, and then once you're there, they've strewn real life history facts through the campaign and in the help files. Games which are lesson-first, game-second don't seem to generally hook the player/student well enough to get the whole module across.

[imagination7413]

I'm just going to drop this here

 

[katakatica]

11 hours ago, moikchap said:

From what I understand, there isn't an easy way to get ren'py stuff on Kongregate

I don't even know Kongregate (but I might just be ignorant still!) I will be on steam/twitch and my game's own site (that I would link here if it existed already....) 

(as for educational games - I agree! I love games that teach without pushing the material onto you! But...this VN will be all fun (well, horror, sadness and maybe some minor steam) and no education whatsoever haha. 

I'm hoping to release next year, but it'll most likely be 2023 as... I am really just starting actively working on it!

[miiila]

I've learned quite a bit about a phase in the history of two countries through the dialogues of the characters in a video game I translated. It was very engaging learning, following the fate of the game characters. I actually cried a few times, and keep in mind that I wasn't even reading/watching the actual finished game, but just reading the raw text, fragmented in a table, at that. Also looked up more than needed to get the job done well, as it made me want to know more. There's great potential in games as a vehicle for teaching history.

[donnovan86]

Since I enjoy videogames myself and I am also history buff, I like games that are history focused. There are some great series like Total War, Europa Universalis, Panzer General, Crusader Kings, Red Dead Redemption, even Kingdom Come Deliverance. So yes, there are many titles to try out, it depends on what time period you are interested in. I forgot the Age of Empires series.

[alphagev]

I'm pretty sure they can! There will be a videogame related to Sigmund Freud that's aiming to help you understand the man behind the scientist and the science of psychology too