Short report: Archaeogaming Hackathon Cologne
Recently, I announced that I will organise an Archaeogaming Hackathon event. Last weekend, we finally did it and it went awesome! We had three groups, and each produced a small but playable game in only two full days. I was really intrigued by the simplicity of the software and possibilities with no prior knowledge…
Three groups to bind them all
So, in a digital pre-meeting we met all the participants and collected ideas from everyone. During that step, we recognized that some students had similar ideas that could work together in one single game. We therefore decided to join them together into one working group and tasked them to come up with a storyboard and some ideas for game mechanics until our in-person meeting in Cologne.
On Friday the 6th we finally met everyone in Cologne. Many students were from Cologne itself, but we also had some guests from other universities and even one participant from Austria. We made introductions and asked every group to repeat their joint idea and tell us about their plans for the next days. Then the work started.
Working environment and atmosphere
We met in the CoDArchLab of the University of Cologne, a room used for teaching and 16 working stations for students. On the computers, RPGMaker MV was already installed, so the groups were able to work independently. They worked very focused starting out discussing their plans and organising who is supposed to do what. Kevin Körner and I (the tutors) seldomly interacted during the hackathon, mostly to provide technical assistance (Kevin) or archaeological/ethical/narrative rubberducking (me).
We provided snacks and drinks, and one student started music, playing in the background. It was actually a very nice and productive working environment. I simply sat in the same room and was using the energy to catch up to some mails and tasks that were necessary. I think what we created in these two days was an analogue version of these “Study with me”-videos on YouTube. Nice!
What about the games?
Well, we produced three games and we will publish them on the DiKopA network page very soon. This report right here is only a short preview of a longer report we will create on the DiKopA blog. So as soon as this goes live, I will let you know. Until then, I can simply describe the three games to you.
1. DigUp: In this excavation simulation you play an archaeologist that is tasked with excavating an artefact and later documenting it digitally with the help of the RTI method. I make a guest appearance in the game as an NPC!
2. ArchaeoManager: Here we play a rookie archaeologist that needs to do an excavation, but the right way. By asking for help and trying out different things, the player learns how an excavation should be carried out in the end.
3. Echos der Erinnerung: Here also we first play an archaeologist that is excavating a prison camp from World War II. By finding different artefacts we meet the ghosts that are living there. In a subgame, we travel back in time and try to escape a prison camp ourselves…
