Heroes of the Antarctic
Current Project:
A ROGUELIKE TEAM MANAGEMENT AND ROLEPLAYING EXPERIENCE OF THE DISCOVERY EXPEDITION
Experience A True Story Through A Game
The Journey South
In 1902 three men set off for the South Pole; Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and Edward Wilson. This was the first British attempt at the Pole. It did not go well. The team had to fight tooth and nail to make it back home alive, but in the process, they became national heroes.
The player's role is to manage these explorers as a team, get them as close to the Pole as possible, and return them to base camp alive.
The player's role is to manage these explorers as a team, get them as close to the Pole as possible, and return them to base camp alive.
- Manage their rations, pace, health, and decisions.
- Experience random events that will drastically affect the outcome of the game.
- Use your knowledge of history and modern science to make decisions the original team would never have thought to choose.
- Learn about their true harrowing experiences taken directly from the pages of their diaries.
Choose A Perspective
The team shares a collective story, but each explorer has a private story to tell too, by selecting one of these perspectives, the player learns more about each person, but also determines the game they'll play.
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Shackleton: Stricken with scurvy and health problems on the journey but his morale never faltered. His fair minded and rational approach solved many problems on the journey.
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Scott: The leader of this expedition, he took responsibility for everything, even his own character flaws. He had several, but he managed to get everyone home alive.
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Wilson: Doctor on the journey and Scott's close friend, he was also a confidante in many ways and was able to take on many of his responsibilities.
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Oh, The Wonderful Ways You'll Die
Similar to most roguelike games, Heroes of the Antarctic has random events and permanent death. There is no option to load a checkpoint and try again.
- Replay value comes from trying to travel further and experience the story in its entirety.
- If one teammate dies, the game is over.
- Happily, diary entries that have been unlocked, remain revealed between games.
History is no Picnic
Take solace in the knowledge that the crises your team face are those documented by the explorers in their journals. If it's happening to you, it happened on the Discovery Expedition.
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The choices you make affect the lives of your team as they deal with the extreme conditions of the Antarctic. Don't have enough supplies? Tough. Fell into a crevasse? Tough.
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These are the choices Scott, Shackleton, and Wilson had to face, and so will you.
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Unbridled Scientific and Historical Accuracy
The scenarios, events, and choices the player makes are taken directly from the diaries of Antarctic explorers from the Discovery Expedition, as well as research done on future expeditions.
Further gameplay content has been researched with the help of historians at the Dulwich College Archives.
Further gameplay content has been researched with the help of historians at the Dulwich College Archives.
Scientific and geographic information is included in the game thanks to the consulting efforts of scientists at the Office of Polar Programs at the National Science Foundation. Ice conditions and their effect on travel and on the continent have been provided with the generous aid of scientists like Stephanie Pfirman at Columbia University.