A team of final year gaming students at the University of Salford are developing a new game to help preserve the Rapa Nui community on Easter Island.
The Rapa Nui language is on the brink of extinction and the students have been collaborating with the local community and peers at a Chilean University.
“We are a group of teachers from Easter Island interested in recovering our Rapa Nui cultural heritage. We used to talk about the recovery of our language, but now we rather talk about its rescuing because very few children are now able to speak it,” explained Rapa Nui teacher and community leader, Hahave Tuki.
“However, we noticed they love playing videogames, that’s why we found that this is a great idea that will help them reconnecting with their history, language and traditions.”
The first prototype of the game is being tested by children and teachers in March.
“When we were first given the option of this brief, we saw an opportunity to make something bigger than ourselves. It’s given us the space to dive deep into topics we never would have thought to look at before and the chance to interact with people we probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. It’s rewarding and it broadens our horizons,” said Programmer and Group Manager, Rowan Fitton.
“Especially in the case of Rapa Nui, the island culture isn’t broadly represented in popular media, and when it is, it’s usually inaccurate. That’s why we wanted to focus on accurate representation of what the culture was and is in the present day.
“Game making is always a turbulent experience, especially at the university level and we have a lot riding on us to make this game good. Not only are we endeavouring to represent the people we’re working with accurately, but we aim to encourage people to educate themselves about Rapa Nui and its people and, hopefully, we and our partners on the other side of the world can make a game we’re proud of.”
