Designer Diary: Kells (1)

Several years ago my wife and I dallied with seeking out Oscar-nominated films in categories beyond the often aggressively mediocre prestige projects typically associated with "Best Picture." One of our more intriguing discoveries was 2010 Best Animated Feature nominee The Secret of Kells (co-directed by Irish animators Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey). The basic plot revolves around a 12-year old boy named Brendan living in Kells, Ireland, which is soon to be under siege by Vikings from the north. Brendan is torn between obedience to his stern uncle, an Abbott who is desperate to complete the city walls before the invaders arrive, and his passion for the art of manuscript illumination. There's a fantasy element to the film's historical trappings, with Brendan befriending a young faerie spirit, and his overcoming an ancient "pagan" evil to recover the magnifying crystal needed to complete the delicate, detailed work of the illuminated manuscript that eventually became known as the "Book of Kells."

The Book of Kells is one of the finest works of art in the Western religious tradition. The Book's remarkable colour and ornamental aesthetic informs Moore and Twomey's approach to animating The Secret of Kells, which transforms 1st-century Ireland into a living illuminated manuscript. And while the film indulges in some relatively common plot and character contrivances for animated films (cute animal companion, check; child of over-protective authority figure rebels, gets in trouble, grows up, check), it's idiosyncratic art style, subject-matter, and fine performances by the voice actors make The Secret of Kells more compelling than your average animated fare. I recommend it.

When I discovered The Secret of Kells I hadn't even begun to get into the board game hobby, let alone started to think about design, so I didn't make a link between the film and a potential game design until some time later. As creative things often do, the idea came about almost by accident.

I frequently make light of my love of dry, soulless Eurogames. I used to baffle people in my gaming groups by remarking that my ideal game would probably involve monks simply walking around looking at things ("action: look at tree"; "spend time tokens to notice bird in tree"). When I began to canvass the cultural detritus in my life for design ideas I realized that The Secret of Kells was, indeed, about monks walking around, so that was covered. Alas, these monks were actually doing things rather than simply looking at them, which might make for slightly more interesting gameplay. Well, no game is perfect.

The basic story of The Secret of Kells could lend itself quite easily to a number of mechanisms: the imminent raid by the "Northmen" and Kells' building of a protective wall invokes something like tower defense, while the scribes' need to gather berries from the surrounding forest to make ink for the Book itself suggests multi-tiered resource acquisition and conversion, pick-up and deliver. But whatever uniqueness the game may (or may not) possess would have to come with the action-selection mechanism -- in effect, how these relatively standard mechanisms could be implemented in a distinctive way.

More to come ...