Date of Submission

Spring 2019

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literature; Computer Science

Project Advisor 1

Nathan Shockey

Project Advisor 2

Keith O'Hara

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Abstract

This project translates a novel, Kobayashi Takiji’s, Kani Kôsen (The Crab Cannery Ship, 1929) into a video game. As a joint project between Computer Science and Japanese, its focus is to develop a game for the original Game Boy (1989) narratively based on a work of Japanese proletarian literature. Specific tools used in development were the Game Boy emulator: bgb, the Game Boy Developers Kit (gbdk), the Game Boy CPU manual, as well as a foundation in the C programming language, and some lower level systems experience. Being based on a novel, the play style utilizes text heavily, and is a nod to earlier Role-Playing Games (RPG’s), such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Through the changing of medium from text-based novel, to interactive role-playing game, or more distinctly, from book to gaming console, several acts of translation are undergone. Many of the theoretical questions with which this project revolves involve the ways in which the changing of medium effects a piece of media. In particular, the transition from a work of literature to a work of electronic media has been theorized as transforming a work’s fundamental message.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Download

This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.

Share

COinS