Aporistic Games & Classics

Workshop presentation at St Andrews Reception Research Group
December 12th, 2024

My friend Anna Coopey invited me to speak about my past, present, and future projects on using Classics in and for games. So I ranted about Gnosis and about Harvest of Names (which is more in-production than it is not).

The takeaway:
Games can achieve greater narrative/aesthetic impact if the player is slightly estranged, on their toes, and pays attention. Classics, especially beyond the generic pop culture background, are a good Other to bring the player out of their comfort zone. But the prevalence of Classics also means that your symbols and themes would be readable.

The trick is to be aware of what you are doing with Classics: trying to recreate the pop culture image is unproductive. So is using the signifiers (a hydra! a sexy man with a club! a centaur!) without any of their baggage (child of the primeval disorder! a man overcome by his rage! a centaur!) Keep Classics strange, carry that strangeness over, but keep the Classical influence overt as a means for the audience to grapple with that strangeness.

Here are the presentation materials.