By Maxwell Wilkens
While the rise of small, “indie” video game developers has created spaces for new ideas, it is rare for these creators to talk about history, race, and nationality in their video games, said Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka, the creators of award-nominated games Andonyne and Even the Ocean.
“It seems like over the past ten years, as there have been more spaces for smaller creators…it's been a bit more welcoming to make games about history or races,” said Han-Tani, who is a composer in addition to his role as a video game designer. “But I would also say that, in terms of being able to make a living from those games, I don’t think too much has changed.”
Indie video game designers Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka are the two creators behind Anaglesic Productions, which has developed award-nominated games such as Even The Ocean.
His partner Kittaka also said diversity has been lacking in the field. “When I think indie, I also think of whiteness, for the most part,” said Kittaka, who is a multidisciplinary artist outside of her interest in video game development. “I just don’t feel like we have tons and tons of peers who are working in a similar mindset.”
Han-Tani and Kittaka spoke to a UC Santa Barbara audience about how they developed diverse Taiwanese characters and environments for their most recent game – Sephonie – in order to bring attention to the country and its people, which are underrepresented in the world of video games.
The lecture was sponsored by the Center for Taiwan Studies, and was the first ever video game event in the Sounds, Screens & Stages from Taiwan lecture series. The event was moderated by film and media studies professor Alenda Chang and doctoral student Patrick Fryberger, who specializes in contemporary Chinese video games.
Kittaka is a Japanese-American trans woman, while Han-Tani is of Japanese, Taiwanese, and Irish descent. “Maybe for the first half of my life I wasn’t actually aware of the distinction of Taiwan and China, until I actually visited in early high school.” Han-Tani said. “There have definitely been people I have met that are not sure about the difference as well.”
In Sephonie, the player controls three scientists of Taiwanese descent who are studying the ecosystem of a mysterious island. Throughout the game, the player must navigate natural obstacles in the environment and interact with native organisms to unlock new abilities that make traversing these obstacles easier.
In Sephonie, Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka’s most recent project, a player must navigate through dream-like caves, which begin to reflect the minds of the game’s protagonists.
Sephonie was largely conceived to broaden the way in which a player perceives a person from Taiwan, or the country of Taiwan itself. “The way we wanted to do that is by portraying Taiwan as having many kinds of people, in different life situations,” Han-Tani said. “Sephonie tends to focus on people who are distanced from Taiwan in some way.” One playable character – Amy – is a third-generation Taiwanese immigrant from Bloomington, Illinois who only speaks English. Another playable character – Riyou – is a first-generation Taiwanese immigrant from Tokyo, Japan who speaks three languages.
The different connections that the scientists in the game have with Taiwan is further explored in levels that take place in a mysterious, dream-like cave, where the subterranean environment begins to reflect the minds of the characters. In Riyou’s cave level, the character must traverse downtown Tokyo, which explores the cultural influence that Japan has over Taiwan. “Caves are particularly useful because you can directly associate depth in the cave with something else,” Han-Tani said. “In this case, it was the trio’s mental distance from reality.”
Kittaka and Han-Tani said that they want to possibly delve further back into Taiwanese history for future projects. “I just want to inspire more people to have historically-informed games,” Han-Tani said.
Maxwell Wilkens is a third-year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Communication and Music Studies. He is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.