Archaeologists in popular fiction are common enough: they perform death-defying stunts and face down ancient traps and the more often than not, the undead, in their quest for ancient riches and the fountain of youth. The one thing they never do is any thinking. 

Last year at inkle we released Heaven’s Vault, a Playstation game that casts the player in the role of an archaeologist, and attempts to create a strong accessible interactive narrative and gameplay experience while still depicting archaeology as a scientific process; one of discovery, theory and deduction. The player takes the role of Aliya Elasra, an archaeologist in a world that has forgotten its past, who by exploring, translating inscriptions, and making deductions from context, slowly pieces together a long and complex history. But in a break from standard game design patterns, the player’s theories are never validated; the game’s deduction process has no win state; and the history a player uncovers is often self-contradictory, confusing, fragmented.

In this talk I’ll outline how we went from the initial concept of “archaeology as a game activity” through to the specifics we implemented for the game. I’ll describe how we balanced ambiguity and discovery to create a history that’s almost - but not quite - possible to uncover; and how we tried to position archaeology as a scientific and deductive process, without losing the sense of historical wonder - and without a spike-trap on sight.

Inkle is an independent narrative game company, founded in 2011 by two Cambridge game developers with a passion for storytelling and beautiful design. Know more about Jon Ingold, Inkle and Heaven's Vault at www.inklestudios.com.

Request access to the Zoom session by sending an e-mail to Andreas Angourakis (contact below).