Fading Between Pages

Fading Between Pages

Author/Designer: Jenna McClain

Fading Between Pages is an interactive storyboard game that aims to teach the player about pre-colonial Virginia through a literary lens. The game takes place from the point of view of a tired college student who is accidentally transported into early Virginia through a book at the local library. The player must navigate the early landscape of America and gather information for their upcoming project which is due the next day. The player is represented by a college student in order to provide a relatability factor as well as an unbiased view of both peoples who interacted with each other at the time. The world building, which incorporates pieces of Thomas Harriet’s A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, provides examples of interactions between colonists and their environment from an “otherworldly” perspective. The main focus of this game is to highlight the interactions of different environmental factors colliding with one another without the player being intrusive or directly influencing the landscape in any capacity. 

There are multiple accounts of the colonists and their interactions particularly regarding the natural environment and Native peoples. One of the main points I wanted to explore more through this game was the differences in perception between the colonists and Native Americans. The most interesting aspect of these interactions that I hope to portray is the dichotomy between the Natives's openness toward the white settlers juxtaposed with the settler's implicit desire to overpower the Natives. By having my character possess background knowledge of these early American actions it gives the story a unique perspective which I think will be helpful for players when it comes to the material. My character is given multiple opportunities to observe and gather pieces of information for their project and the player can take multiple routes to collect them all. This “collecting” aspect makes my game almost like scrapbooking information which can be studied or analyzed further upon completion of the game.