Videogame Design as A Practical Approach to Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928)

Abstract

What might it be like to play Orlando as a video game?  For someone who reads Woolf there is a cathartic pleasure to be found in reinterpreting and reimagining this compelling text in an interactive format.  My attempt to transpose the narrative of Orlando into another mode of storytelling and experience operates within the logic that the craft of game mechanics is integral to, if not outweighed by, the meaningful message that the game wants to pass on.  The project consists of three distinctive discussion questions; namely, the purpose of making Orlando a playable character, the possible options for implementation and how the selected approach might work.  In this essay I provide an account of the development and potential of my thought experiment of adapting Orlando as a videogame.  My exploration focuses entirely on the conceptual foundation for the game such as character design and development of a specific game mechanic.