Gameful Experiences, Playable Stories Archive

Unarchived (Season 2, Episode 7)

with Jason Boyd (Host), Jeremy Andriano, Patrick R. Dolan, Kevin Ghouchandra, and Chelsea Russell

Broadcast date: July 15, 2024

Writer: Jason Boyd

Producer: Patrick R. Dolan

Time Index

  • Introduction (0:00:00)
  • Part One: Might and Delight, Indie Developers/Games (0:10:25)
  • Part Two: Book of Travels and Indie Game Development
    • Crowdfunding (0:25:12)
    • Early Access (0:37:53)
    • Studying Early Access Games (0:47:50)
  • Part Three: Playing with the ‘RPG’ (0:56:53)
    • Discussion of Book of Travels‘ Character Creation (1:00:37); Questlines (1:03:26); Day/Night Cycle (1:06:21); Player Interaction/TMORPG (1:09:55); Permadeath (1:16:55)
  • Part Four: Aesthetics and Affects in Book of Travels (1:22:16)
  • Part Five: Gameplay and Story in Book of Travels
    • Gameplay (1:30:05)
    • Narrative Design (1:36:50)
    • Slow Gaming (1:56:36)
    • The Risks of Innovation (2:05:35)
  • Conclusion (2:11:35)

Might and Delight’s Book of Travels (2021-) deliberately challenges the expectations that players bring to the CRPG (Computer Role-Playing Game). It does not have the obvious and well-signposted quests or achievements that most open exploration-style games are structured by, and the larger stories about the world of the game have to be painstakingly assembled piecemeal.

Book of Travels also has a number of features that complicate it as an object of study and teaching in terms of digital games and storytelling. It is an early-access game, that is, it is unfinished, in development, and contains bugs and features that may be fixed, modified, removed or added. It is an multiplayer online game, but the developers refer to it as a TMORPG: a Tiny (rather than Massive) Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, with a maximum of seven players on any given game server–players with whom you can’t verbally communicate, trade, or battle, and who you might not even encounter in a play session or encounter once only.

In this episode, the Unarchived team discusses the Might and Delight and Book of Travels in connection with category of ‘indie’ developers and games, the development of Book of Travels and the phenomena of ‘crowdfunding’ and ‘early access,’ the game’s attempts to do something new with the role-playing genre, and Book of Travels‘ merits as a narrative game.

This is a special summertime episode of the Playable Stories: Unarchived podcast, which is an experimental track submission for the 2024 Electronic Literature Organization conference, hosted online by the University of Central Florida. The ELO’s purpose is to facilitate and promote the writing, publishing, and reading of literature in electronic media, and you can find more about the ELO by visiting eliterature.org.

The recording of the ELO panel can be watched here.

All audio clips in the podcast other than the opening and closing podcast theme music quoted from the Book of Travels Soundtrack (BoTS), and ambient gameplay videos by Book of Ambience (see ‘Sources and Resources,’ below):

  • 1st clip: Except from “Wild Moons” (BoTS, Disc 2, Track 5)
  • 2nd clip: Excerpt from “The Elden Road” (BoTS, Disc 1, Track 2)
  • 3rd clip: Excerpt from “Crossings, Night City” (Book of Ambience)
  • 4th clip: Excerpt from “Asken Hamlet” (BoTS, Disc 1, Track 6)
  • 5th clip: Excerpt from “Bat Saha, Dandelion Temple” (Book of Ambience)
  • 6th clip: Excerpt from “Woken by the Sunset” (BoTS, Disc 2, Track 7)
  • 7th clip: Excerpt from “Paths (Main Theme)” (BoTS,. Disc 1, Track 1)

Sources and Resources:

Might and Delight-produced sources

Steam News

Creating Book of Travels series (Steam)

YouTube Videos

Other Sources

Leave a comment