Introducing The Girl Who Sees
Hello, world! It has been a while since I have updated this blog, but finishing grad school and finding a job can get in the way sometimes. Those things are now squared away, and I am back.
Note: the artwork above has since been updated.
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Update: our official website has launched! Check out www.girlwhosees.com.
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I am pleased to officially announce the development of a video game named The Girl Who Sees. As the game's creator and project lead, I have been managing a revolving team of programmers, artists, audio engineers, and game designers for the past year, as we have slowly worked on this game in our free time.
This 2D point-and-click PC adventure showcases Filipino history and culture amidst the backdrop of Japanese occupation during World War II. A young village girl, Quina, helps a dwarf named Edgar translate a mysterious ancient scroll sought by evil creatures, hoping that uncovering this secret will explain why she suddenly gains the power to see Tagalog words everywhere she turns. The player will embark on quests to help the magical forest, fight mythical creatures of the Philippines, and learn some Tagalog vocabulary.
The InterIntellectus Studio team is currently in a round of playtesting and polishing our current demo. This demo will be used to promote and advertise our future crowdfunding campaign meant to raise enough funds to build and release the full game.
This game started out as my desire to build something small over a summer for fun. Instead, once the idea got into my head, it has grown and grown into something much more significant. All I wanted to do was make a small fantasy adventure game. However upon brainstorming the plot, I realized that the vast majority of fantasy is set in Nordic or Medieval settings -- meaning white characters. So then I thought, "What about a fantasy featuring people of color?" I quickly decided that I should go with a culture I know well, rather than misrepresenting or appropriating another culture. So, this became a Filipino fantasy game, and wow, I've learned so much about ancient Philippine history and culture that I had absolutely NO idea about.
A few days later, I realized that I should familiarize myself with the current landscape of competition: games set in the Philippines and games about Filipino culture. A Google search brought up this Wikipedia page, and my jaw dropped. There was not a single game whose title or focus was explicitly on Filipino culture. Instead, these games only feature the Philippines from a historical, military standpoint -- reducing the Philippines to nothing more than an interchangeable battleground. For a review of the presence of Filipinos in video games, check out this article from The Rappler a couple of years ago.
Once I realized the severe lack of representation of Filipinos in the international gaming scene, it became clear to me that I should make this game. Certainly, it also serves as an example of the very inter-ed games that I want to promote.
To the best of my current knowledge, The Girl Who Sees will be:
First internationally-released, kid-friendly adventure game about ancient Philippine mythology
First game in U.S. space to focus on and showcase Filipino culture
First internationally-released game focused on rural life in the Philippines (of any time period)
First internationally-released game to combine storytelling with Tagalog language learning
We would absolutely LOVE your help in making The Girl Who Sees a reality. Later this year, we plan to release our demo and launch a crowdfunding campaign. We hope our demo will serve as a "proof of concept" so that we can raise the funds to build the game in entirety. Donations (of a certain amount or more) will secure a copy of the game for you to have once it is released. More details in the coming months!
Stay tuned for a guest post from the TGWS lead programmer, Nathan, in a few days!
