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Kirill Shumilov
UCLA Classics 20, Winter Quarter 2018
Creative Project

An Adventure into Roman Text-Based Game Building

For the creative project my friend (Pravin Visakan) and I decided to create a text-based adventure game set in the heart of Augustan Rome. After listening the lecture about Roman rituals and religion, we chose to make Robigalia as a foundation for our story. An unknown, unheard, and rather unusual aspect of Roman life, the festival of Robigalia is set around the sacrifice to the god of rust and mildew, Robigus. While a relatively minor deity, Robigus was said to be able to bring about the end to Rome Emprire by eradicating its crops, if not pleased correctly.

The main source of information about Robigalia came from Chicago University’s website Encyclopedia Romana (Grout 2017). The passage was rather short and contained an excerpt from Ovid’s Fasti, where Ovid described his experience attending the ritual, which included sights such as the procession of flamen Quirinalis, sacrifices of wine, incenses, and red dog’s entrails, and prayers. This depiction became the main inspiration for the premise of the game that we created. The flamen Quirinalis goes missing, and the player, controlling the narrative through the flamen’s slave Gaius Pompeius, must collect all the items for the sacrifice to perform the ritual to save Rome from the rage of Robigus and the famine that would inevitably follow. In order to accomplish the task, the player has to explore different parts of Rome in search of all needed pieces, some of which can be purchased in shops, like wine, while others require a bit more thinking. To make the game more interesting, we have decided to add inferior counterparts of the items: grape juice, old incenses, and random old entrails, found in the garbage. Depending on the different combinations of items the player had collected throughout the game and sacrificed in the Ritual, the god decided, whether to grant freedom to the player and spare the city, or, if all of the items brought to him are “poor” versions of intended ones, condemn Rome and everyone in it to death.

After we sketched the main storyline, the plot arcs, and decided on the small details and plot twists, we divided the parts of the story among each other. I was responsible for the descriptions of transitional areas (Temple of Mars Ultor, The Forum of Augustus, The Forum Romanum, The Forum Boarium, Subura), connecting different parts of game, store episodes (Wine Cart and Incense shop) and other episodes, such as brothel scene, Ager Romanus. To write and present the story, we used the program Twine, which allows its user to split the story into basic building blocks called “passages,” and connect these passages to define player’s progression through the game. Twine utilizes the basic tools of every browser to render the story, allowing us to develop custom design of passages presented. Using HTML and CSS, I was able to select fonts, pick colors and set the layout of the passages. My partner, on other hand created wonderful pictures of items the player gathers throughout the game, in the style of pixel art, using a program called Asperite. The logic of the game was implemented using JavaScript programming language.

The image of Rome was mainly constructed based on the book The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, recommended by the professor. It contained visual descriptions of Rome’s many sites, including plans of temples and fora, reconstructions of streets and buildings, and quotes and thoughts of contemporaries. Especially useful were two chapters at the beginning and ending of the book, written from the perspective of a Roman citizen, walking through the city and describing it. The first chapter talked about Rome before Augustus came to power, and the last one described Rome left by Augustus, after his death. While writing my passages one of my main goals was to accurately deliver the image of Rome, both physically and emotionally. Therefore, I tried to include as many interesting and important details as possible, preserving light and fun nature of the game.

One of the most monumental and characteristic sites constructed during Augustus’ reign were The Temple of Mars Ultor and The Forum of Augustus. They both work in ensemble as symbols of Augustus power and divine heritage. Moreover, they are characteristic of ideas and ideals Augustus pursued, when rebuilding Rome: monumental and mighty, worthy of the biggest Empire in the Ancient world and its long history, but light, bright, and elegant at the same time. In the corresponding passages, I tried to convey the same feelings. The player is overwhelmed, but also inspired, by the image he observes, when he steps out of the Temple. Walking around, he sees the pinnacle of Roman life: senators, lawyers and others — wealthiest people of Rome work to move the Empire forward under “ever watchful gaze” of the statues of summi viri.

The Forum Romanum is significantly older and not as precise and accurate as younger sites, but still it preserves its grandiose nature and history. The player feels more familiar and comfortable here, as compared to the Forum of Augustus. The nobility of the Roman Empire mixes here with the lives of common people. In the Forum, our character can listen to an important trial, conducted in the middle of the square, but also can sip wine and talk to his friend.

On the Forum Boarium, the political and social aspects of Roman culture step aside, giving way to the everyday life of people of the city. Located near the river banks it is a perfect place for trade. On the markets of the Forum the player is able to witness everything a contemporary Roman citizen can find in Rome, starting from cattle, vegetables and incenses and ending with elephants and slaves. As a capital of multicultural country, Rome attracts people from all over the known world, and, as a result, the player hears many different languages, some of which he can’t even understand.

Subura, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of all other for a described before. Dark and smelly streets of this district, scared by fires and floods, are home to many poor and low-class people of Rome. Violence and debauchery are common in this area. However, it is an intrinsic part of the city, without which Rome would not be Rome at all. Despite its notorious reputation, many markets can be found here, and the meat market the player finds is one of the biggest in the city. Here, the player can even pay visit to the brothel, however, that might be result in rather unforeseen consequences.

Throughout the writing process I was less interested in the personality development of our main character — my partner, Pravin, enjoyed this processes way more than I did. However, when I got chance to give voice to Gauis, I tried to give him a seed of philosophical and rational thinking and longing for free life and his beloved home city of Athens. Gauis is smart and a little bit ambitious: he dreams of glory and wouldn’t allow a wine trader to sell him wine for an unreasonable price. As Gauis explores the city, he encounters the statue of Hercules, hears his native language, and sees a slave being sold. All these events remind him of home and his ultimate goal to become free and return home.

I enjoyed the process or writing the game. I think, we were able to create the story that both is fun and interesting to follow, but also allows the player to peek into the life of Ancient Rome of the period of the reign of Augustus. The player has opportunity to see ancient fora, meet Ovid, chase a dog, bargain for wine and even use services of the oldest profession, if he or she chooses. We tried to make the game not very easy and expect the player to explore various areas and scenes of Rome to complete it. Overall, I hope you will enjoy the game as much as we do!


Bibliography

  1. Favro, Diane. 1996. The Urban Image of Augustuan Rome. Cambridge University Press.
  2. Grout, James. 2017. Robigalia. April 1. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/robigalia.html.
  3. Renshaw, James. 2012. In Search of the Romans. London: Bloomsbury.