This game and blog has been created by: Susanne van den Eijkel, Anton van Es, Francesca Mackenzie, Sharon McMeekin, Elaine Murray, Ellie O’Leary, and Lotte Wijsman.
Proudly presenting the game FILE FORMAT FLING, a game quite unlike any other digital preservation game out there. Is it needed? Almost definitely not! Is it educational? A bit! Does it bring something new and different to the pantheon of games that you haven’t seen before? Almost definitely and it is probably fun too!
In this blog post, you’ll unzip the story behind the game: why we created it, the challenges we encountered, and—most importantly—where you can play your heart out.
The concept for the game was the result of a workshop, facilitated by the creators of this game. The workshop was designed to teach people coding skills whilst building digital games. Participants were invited to create a digital preservation themed game in small groups and were so absorbed by the process that the facilitators had time to create the start of a game themselves! Staying in touch after the workshop (as well as even more people getting involved in the project) we finally created the game in time for World Digital Preservation Day!
So more about the workshop itself…
At iPRES 2024, the creators of the game facilitated a workshop where people could learn some digital skills while creating games. We focussed on coding languages that are used to create websites, such as HTML, CSS and elements of JavaScript. Furthermore, we made use of the platform Twine to create the game. Twine is an open-source tool that can be used for telling interactive, nonlinear stories (text-based storytelling). Although Twine is very text-focused, it is possible to add images, sounds and even videos. The user interface of the tool is designed to make it easy to visualise the flow through branches of a narrative. Twine is published to HTML files which can be uploaded on any web hosting service or shared privately. Games can be played without installing extra software. For individuals that want to learn a bit of coding, Twine is an excellent way to start!
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Using this game board participants of the workshop were guided through the different steps of game creation.
We provided a guide for the workshop that included some basic information on Twine, coding languages and game ideas. This meant that the participants knew what to expect and helped them get started. That also meant that we as facilitators had time to work on a game as well. We also wanted to contribute to the growing list of digital preservation themed games. During meetings in preparation for the workshop, we quite quickly decided to create a dating simulator with file formats. And so we began creating this game during the workshop.We divided the tasks. Some worked on the story or created pixel art, while others coded or added extra elements to the game. Of course, the three hour workshop was not enough to create an elaborate game. But we did have a good start and so we decided to work on it more so we could have a fully functioning game for World Digital Preservation Day.
So what is File Format Fling about? File Format Fling is a single player game, in which the player is a happy, but lonely, digital preservation practitioner looking for love. After a long busy day at work, involving a lot of file formats, you head home exhausted. After you fall asleep, you drift off to find yourself entering a dating quiz in your dreams. By answering multiple questions you will find the file format of your dreams (literally). Different answers will of course lead you to different file formats. Will you find your perfect file format, or will you wake up as alone as you started? And can you unlock all of the possible endings?
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Start screen of the game
To play the game, open this link.
Please do note that the game is entirely fictional. No rights may be derived for this game. No people or file formats have been harmed during the creation of this game. This game can be played at your own risk. If you want to take a look at the source code or even improve it then click here!
Enjoy!