Strange Sickness, the videogame from a team led by researchers from Aberdeen University, is OUT NOW for Windows PC on Itch.io.
Strange Sickness is an interactive experiment which merges real historical research and records with digital storytelling. It’s a micro-budget indie game, built by historians, with a focus rarely – if ever – seen in videogames.
The year is 1498. A ‘strange sickness’ threatens to bring turmoil and death to the land. In Aberdeen it falls to an aspiring scholar, Robert, to devise a strategy to protect the town. Based upon the city’s surviving medieval records, the game challenges players to halt, or slow a strange pandemic that threatens to engulf the region.
Explore Ancient Aberdeen
Players must explore sites and locations around Aberdeen, speaking to and characters from all parts of society to find strategies and evidence, then present your plans to the town council.
Make choices to shape the story as you tackle the threat of plague outbreaks in 1498, 1500, 1507 and 1514. Follow Robert’s personal story and relationships as his responsibilities grow in an irreverent tale that is also an encounter with the past, built by historians from some of the richest survivng historical records of Scotland’s medieval period.
Strange Sickness offers players the chance to Immerse themselves within a story that brings real historical sources to life. Collect strategies, evidence and glossary words. Challenge curious characters with verse battles called ‘flytings’ to unlock more evidence. Meet alewives, mediciners, royal courtiers and blustering aldermen. Trace the contacts of those arriving on an infected ship.
Save lives by convincing the council to take action, and face the consequences.
Buy Strange Sickness
The game has been created by Common Profyt Games, built with support from Kickstarter backers, the University of Aberdeen, the Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service, ONE CodeBase, and the Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives.
You can even read a commentary from the historians behind the game on the website.
The game was created in conjunction with Katharine Neil, on game design/development, Alana Bell offering art and illustration, with music from DIM, Strobotone, and ‘Songs From Medieval Aberdeen’.
You can find out more about Strange Sickness here.
Strange Sickness is OUT NOW for Windows. You can buy Strange Sickness on Itch.io for $9.99.