History Simulation for Teaching Early Modern British History

This Level 2 Digital Humanities Start-Up grant will innovate the humanities by means of serious gaming. First, we will continue development of Desperate Fishwives (DF), a cooperative game based on early modern British history. Beyond this first-phase “development” effort for a single game for history, DF will serve as a prototype for a simplified game development front-end for the humanities. The broader goal, beyond development of one game, is to provide humanities scholars (frequently unacquainted with programming) a tool model that facilitates making games for the humanities, including but not limited to history games, games based in literature, and virtual tours of cultural or historical sites. Our second phase plans are the development of this innovative tool and technology framework, complete with accompanying documentation, for other humanities scholars to create games in their own areas. We will then publicize and make available the tool and documentation for others to use.