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Southland developers tackle grief through gamification
21.09.2023 - 17:49 / stuff.co.nz
Imagine unravelling a mystery, one fantastical two-dimensional world at a time.
Invercargill’s Pekapeka Productions is developing an interactive visual novel that fuses adventure with lessons about the power of choices and the grieving process.
The group, made up of Southern Institute of Technology | Te Pūkenga creative arts students, recently returned from Wellington where they presented Splintered Fate at the New Zealand Game Developers‘ Conference’s Kiwi Interactive Showcase.
For the students who travelled up, it was a chance to network and see what a career in gaming might look like.
Creative producer Jessica Steininger said it was gratifying to know she’d be able to earn a salary from her passion.
“I’ve grown up with animation, film and gaming,” she said.
Pekapeka Productions was a multidisciplinary group of students from across different creative programmes working together and Steininger said the possibilities for such collaborations in game development were endless.
They needed animators – whether 2D, 3D or even sculptors – background artists, voice artists, sound engineers, writers, and the list goes on.
The team spent a week brainstorming ideas for its project before settling on a story and setting.
Splintered Fate followed a girl through western steampunk, children’s fantasy, and disco horror worlds, as she unravelled the mystery of how her family were killed.
“The processing of grief was just one of the strongest themes to come through (during brainstorming),” Steininger said.
The gaming industry in New Zealand was growing steadily, she said, but she’d like to see more opportunities in Southland.
SIT screen arts programme manager Rachel Mann said the students were asked to create a business plan for their game including communications, budgets, marketing, project management, presenting to the industry and promoting to the public.
“Taking the product to an event like the New Zealand Game Developers‘ Conference really fulfils those outcomes,” she said.
Both industry players and the public trialled the game, Mann said: “They (conference attendees) were incredibly giving, the students received an immense amount of feedback, both good and bad, about how to develop and polish their product.”
The team was planning to approach the Centre of Digital Excellence to further develop the game, which Steininger believed could be used as an educational tool to help people deal with grief and trauma.
Southlanders would get the chance to play Splintered Fate at Creator Con at Te Rau o te Huia, Centre for Creative Industries on November 17.
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