"Video games are important because they simultaneously function in the field of protection, although not in the literal sense, as well as in the field of representation and promotion, thereby enabling the transfer of knowledge and the potential for various readings and interpretations of heritage which is particularly important for the traditions of small nations and cultures," say the authors.
From vampires to partisans: a chapter on Serbian games in a book by a famous publisher
16.10.2024.
If you follow the SGA site, you know that our game dev scene has been flourishing for years and is becoming an increasingly important pin on the map of the European industry. What you may not know is that the same is happening with our academic scene that explores video game studies.
We have already conveyed impressions from the first and second SVI conferences in Novi Sad, which showed that Serbia is not only fertile ground for creating games, but also for thinking about them. So it was only a question of when our academic scene would speak about our own industry.
That’s what happened in the latest edition of Routledge’s Advances in Game Studies. Within the book Central and Eastern European Histories and Heritages in Video Games there is a chapter signed by Manojlo Maravić, Ljiljana and Ana Gavrilović titled “From Vampires to Partisans: Serbian Cultural Heritage in Video Games”. In it, the authors say the following:
Video games are “effective tool for popularizing heritage (natural, cultural – tangible and intangible). This tool in general, and especially in the Republic of Serbia, is immensely underutilized. The young Serbian industry, apart from a few bright examples, has not had a strong interest in incorporating elements of local heritage into its games.”
Hence, this study draws attention to the games that have done this, although in different ways: from the “hollywoodization” of cultural heritage to its connection with wider cultural trends. In both cases, the effort is to make our heritage closer to the global community. Among the games they wrote about were the games made by our members:
- Pagan Online/Pagan: Absent Gods by Mad Head Games;
- the trilogy Golf Club: Nostalgia, Highwater and The Cub by Demagog Studio;
- Prokuv’o, a title made at the Global Game Jam in 2019;
- Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova by Organic 2 Digital Studio.
The authors conclude that our industry is not particularly willing to take the risks of creating games based on narratives that are less well-known or popular globally, and therefore generally does not incorporate Serbian cultural heritage. The mentioned games are thus important and simultaneously function in the field of protection, although not in the literal sense, as well as in the field of representation and promotion, thereby enabling the transfer of knowledge and the potential for various readings and interpretations of heritage which is particularly important for the traditions of small nations and cultures.
So, if you are a game developer, we hope that this text will encourage you to engage in the display of our rich tradition in some future project and thus make our gaming industry truly our own.