Game developer
Ithacan Mythologies was a collaboration with children’s author Sofia Zarabouka to retell tales from Greek mythology in the form of classic arcade games. (Several of Sofia’s classic books are available in English translation published by the Getty Museum.) As story director for the project, I oversaw narrative design and production. Three games were released on iOS devices in 2016 and 2017: the musical game Singing with the Winds, sidescrolling flying game Flying with Icarus, and personality quiz app Who’s Your God. New games and a series of interactive story books are in the works.
Flying with Icarus is a flying arcade style game based on the famous myth of Icarus and his father Daedalus’s daring escape from King Minos’s Labyrinth. Flying with Icarus is a flying arcade style game based on the famous myth of Icarus and his father Daedalus’s daring escape from King Minos’s Labyrinth.
According to legend, the philosopher Pythagoras discovered the pentatonic scale. In “Singing with the Winds,” we used the pentatonic scale and the lyre—the ancient instrument, given by Hermes to Apollo, that gave the world lyric poetry—to create an easy-to-play music game.
“Who’s Your God?” is an Olympian-themed personality quiz game based on characters created and illustrated by Sofia Zarabouka. We selected colorful episodes from mythology where players could choose a course of action and discover which gods think most like them. Each god’s distinct personality is emphasized. The questions were lightly inspired by the Meyers-Briggs personality assessments, so we spent a lot of time pondering, for example, whether Hermes might be more of an INTJ or an ESFP type of god.
iOS:
Who’s Your God
Singing with the Winds
Flying with Icarus
Project Dates: 2015–2017
Studio: Ithacan Media
Published platforms: iOS