About

What

Yorgame is a world first – an open world First person game, immersing the player in a real historic city (York). The game is aimed at younger players (6-14), and initially it will be available on PC/Mac, with an accompanying phone app for parents/guardians.

Why

Many of us in the development team are parents. We felt that most of the games out there have little educational value, and furthermore tend to reward bad behaviour (e.g. stealing a car or shooting someone!). The aim of yorgame is to create a truly enjoyable experience for the player, whilst also building in key educational components, for example:-

  • Mathematics (Trading engine, money system and missions develop good maths skills)
  • Geography (Modern pictures of York at key points builds local knowledge)
  • Health (Eating well improves health, some missions will develop medical knowledge)
  • Reading (Good reading skills are developed throughout the game)

Following extensive (and on-going!) research, the vision is to recreate every street, including major landmarks and housing.

Furthermore, the game will be customised for each player, with the option of adding in bespoke voiceovers and images (for example having family members voice the in game characters).

Although we strive to be as accurate as possible, there are limitations in the game – this is not a complete historic digital recreation, but rather an attempt to recreate medieval life in an immersive, entertaining and engaging way.

Immersive medieval experience including

  • medieval trading engine
  • money system
  • health / hospitals
  • ability to join guilds
  • undertake relevant tasks (e.g deliver iron ore to blacksmith, or repair city walls)
  • Area based games (e.g. horse riding, boat racing, archery etc)
  • Missions which involve discovering historically significant areas of town

Who

We are a development team based right here in York.

When

We are currently in a crowdfunding phase having finished development of a limited beta release. We plan to be in full beta testing by the end of 2018, and are looking for people around York to help us!

Hang on . . I don’t want my child playing games all day!

Good point! The accompanying phone app will allow the parent / guardian to determine how much gameplay is allowed (perhaps rewarding good behaviour).

However, much more importantly the phone app is designed to allow both parent/guardian & child to head into York to actually discover various points in town, with rewards for doing so. This is intended to be an enjoyable experience for all the family to explore and discover our beautiful city.

Furthermore, we’re working with many establishments to ensure there are discounts to be had at a range of shops, bars and restaurants in York, as well as discounts / free entry into a number of museums.