The Silk Road: A Game - 2023
Role: Game Designer and Unity Developer
Created with Unity and C#, this is a game where 2 players compete with each other between 7 cities and 12 possible events on the Silk Road in 750 AD, trying to trade different types of merchandise to out-profit each other.
In the game, players would have to travel from medieval Eurasia, going from China to Byzantium and back, and deal with possible events such as bad weather, bandit attacks, corruption, and other events in order to survive the road. Meanwhile, the players can resupply, restore health, buy, and sell merchandise in the cities on the road, having the ability to use the price difference of goods across cities to achieve a profit. In these events, players can choose to cooperate to deal with different events, and whether they want to mutually suffer losses depending on the separate financial situations.
Design: Hybrid/ Grayzone Warfare:
The core concept the game hinges itself on is the concept of grey-zone warfare, or hybrid warfare, which is originally an international relations concept that caps the dynamics of state interactions, competitions and confrontations that do not fit in the categories of open, conventional, zero-sum war.
The game mechanics are aimed at creating opportunities for players to conduct these types of confrontations, including but are not limited to:
-Bartering for goods
-Sharing the same caravan
-Committing to combat
-Co-bribing bandits
-Hiring mercenaries and escorts
-Replenishing camels
All of these mechanics allow players to offer points of tension and exploitation but are confined within the same constraints of a caravan-sharing system.
Design: Restoring Historicity:
Although this game does not feature any distinct ideas or themes, it does focus on trying to restore a sense of historicity, a sense of historicity with the players. In this sense, this brings out one of my key objectives in this project, which is to try my best to instil a feeling of “being there”, or “participation” in the historical moment.
The game’s artwork overview appeared to be authentically old, which almost resembles an old map. The UIs consisted of papyrus scrolls that created the same feeling. This created a sense of aesthetic cohesiveness, which in conjunction generated an idea of authenticity and historicity. This is complemented by the idea of the mechanics of the game, in which the different events and dangers of the Silk Road tried their best to re-create the arduous nature of the Silk Road, and, just as how the board game achieved optimum results, regenerated an engaging environment for players on the road.