CHILDREN'S MEDIA FINAL PRESENTATION

sword & stone

1. Treatment

sword & stone is an RPG video game adapted from TH White’s The Sword and the Stone. My proposed platform is iOS/Android. The game has adventures that are completed for experience points, and once enough experience points have been accumulated, Wart is able to pull the sword out of the stone to become King Arthur. Adventures don’t obviously lead from one to the next, so there is an open-world/exploration aspect to the game similar to the Zelda games. The design is classic pixel video game style, giving detail to environments and nature and specific detail to important interactable objects. References to this design can be seen in early Pocahontas video games and Zelda games.

(GIF retrieved from google image search)

You begin by customizing your avatar, Wart. Wart, though traditionally a young European boy in the book, can be male/female and a variety of colors. Once you have customized Wart, a text box appears providing information about Wart. Then the adventure begins.

PART 1:

You begin with cousin Kay and Cully the hawk outside. You can touch both Kay and Cully to learn their names and info about them, similar to the text box for Wart. Icons on the screen allow you to see your current XP, a map of Camelot, and completed adventures. Kay urges you to take Cully out into the forest, in order to advance you must navigate towards the forest.

Once in the forest, Cully emotes frustration, but Kay urges you to release the hawk, causing her to fly away. Kay, angry and scared, leaves the forest but you stay to find Cully. This becomes your first Adventure. To gain XP, you must find and retrieve Cully. No specific instruction is given, encouraging the player to explore the forest. As you explore the forest, you find hawk feathers to indicate Cully’s position and berries that can be used to lure her back to you. Once you find Cully, she flies back to your arm and reveals an opening in the forest where Merlyn’s hut is. You may now choose to approach the hut or return to the castle or explore. Approaching the hut advances the narrative, but is not the only way to obtain XP points.

PART 2

Approaching the hut introduces you to Merlyn, and unlocks more of the forest and a variety of objects and books that contain information helpful for future adventures. Try to remember the objects in Merlyn’s hut or take screenshots, because they might be helpful later.

Part 2 features primarily learning and gaining XP from Merlyn. The main adventures from the book are being transfigured (fish, ant, owl, badger, and squirrel), but the game has potential for more adventures because it is not confined to a page or time limit. A big component of this game is learning about Medieval culture, because it’s TH White’s extensive knowledge of Medieval culture that makes The Sword and the Stone so special. Adventures will include jousting and falconry and chivalry. The encounter with the knight in the forest is another big adventure. All these things rack up XP points and allow you to do more and more.

Example of possible Wart avatar.

PART 3

The beginning of the final part of the narrative is marked by the preparations for the knighting of Kay. People from court and come and bring the news of the passing of the king, leaving no heir. They mention that a sword has been stuck inside an anvil at the castle, and whosoever can pull the sword from the stone shall be king. This information unlocks the final piece of the map: the castle garden. If you think you have enough XP, you can attempt to go pull it, but at this point it is unlikely.

You get a huge XP boost by attending Kay’s tournament. You can compete in some of the games but a moment comes when Kay’s sword is gone and he asks you to get him a new one. If you accept his request, you will quickly find that the only sword now available in the game is the sword and the stone.

The castle garden’s design is more detailed, straying slightly from the pixel scheme to give it more importance. In order to enter, you must have a key earlier obtained from the adventure with the Questing Beast in the woods. Pulling the sword from the stone involves taking a test to see if you have what it takes to be the King of Camelot. The test questions feature content learned from playing the game, mainly the lessons learned from Merlyn.

-The best thing for sadness is to learn something new.

-Be kind to all living things.

-Work hard like an ant, be wise like an owl, tactful like a squirrel.

-Education is more important than sport and might and more valuable than glory.

-Always put yourself in another’s shoes; be empathetic.

When the test is passed and enough XP has been gained, you are able to obtain the sword and become King Arthur.