Search for a lost family heirloom while discovering how the acequia system shapes people’s lives.
Learn about the value of the acequia irrigation system by taking a walk, through story, along the acequia madre. You will encounter various people who can teach you about its value–if you choose to listen. This project aims to teach people from the New Mexico area and elsewhere about the cultural and political significance of the acequia system, and raise awareness of the concerns surrounding water rights in modern day. The history and value of the acequia is far-reaching, but few people remember it nowadays. Our hope is that, by creating a game which allows the user to have a personal experience with those who care about the acequias, we can help raise awareness of this valuable community resource which, if not protected, could soon be lost.
Technical details
Made in Twine, Walk Along the Acequia is free to play and can be found online here (Insert super flashy, pretty link…)
Walk Along the Acequia is free to play and can be found online on itch.io HERE. It was made in Twine using the SugarCube 2.21.0 story format.
Progress
*Walk Along the Acequia* has gone through a number of iterations as it developed. Our original plan was to develop the game in [ARIS](https://arisgames.org), positioned physically along an actual acequia. We decided to prototype the game in Twine, and we realized that we loved the way the text itself can completely immerse the player. So, based on that, we decided to put our time and energy into researching topics more fully to allow that immersion rather than figuring out the logistical details we’d need to create the game along an Acequia. We also wanted the story to be more interactive, so we utilized basic SugarCube code to implement that. We used that code to alter text or story branching options based on the user’s previous experience. (See Anna’s [Coding in Twine](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzRwptxS2it2r-yzmNWaTHT74lyXrb6XhkPdvEU12s4/edit?usp=sharing) document for more details.)
Next steps
Continuing on, we would like to accumulate the resources we used to create Walk Along the Acequia and to reflect back on our experience creating this game. We will focus on things that we could do differently, with the goal being that future game developers can learn from our experience. It would also be neat to develop another version of this game in ARIS with pictures and characters, set physically along an acequia. For that we would need artist’s help and a nice stretch of acequia that’s easily accessible and that does not run through private property. This ARIS game could possibly be played on an Acequia Walk, an event organized to increase awareness of the acequia.
Why you should support this project
Acequias are very valuable to the people of New Mexico for agriculture as well as cultural significance. They’ve shaped history, culture, and family stories in New Mexico for generations–and the more industrialized and modernized the state becomes, the more people are losing sight of the value of the acequia system to the state’s cultural heritage. Walk Along the Acequia seeks to capture some of that value and allow the player to have a personal experience with the acequia and become more aware of the influence it has had on people through history.
Risks and challenges
Trying to respectfully and truthfully represent cultures different from our own was our biggest challenge. To combat this, we conducted extensive research and asked for advice from people who know the cultures and histories well (we’d like to offer special thanks to Dr. Myrriah Gomez for all of her help during the conceptual stages). There is a lot to learn from the world around us, and taking research and extracting gems that can be included in the story of a game takes a lot of dedication and time. Expanding our knowledge of coding in Twine was also a challenge, but not an insurmountable one due to the Twine documentation online and also YouTube tutorial series.
The Team
Anna Carey – Computer science student interested in video games and digital media. She also enjoys storytelling and considers making connections with people to be one of the greatest benefits of this project. She has enjoyed learning about Twine’s coding system, SugarCube, for this project.
Devon Lagueux – Biology major studying microbial communities and climate change. Learned a lot about making choices as a game designer while making this game, as well as applying experience with other coding languages to hack together a workable script.
Victoria Villescas – Business Administration Major with a concentration in Management Information Systems. She has never worked on a game before, but was excited to bring this idea to life with her co-creators. She was born and raised in New Mexico and feels a deep connection to the subject matter.
Other info
Want to see into our heads? Check out our brainstorming and planning documents.
Here’s a compilation of some of our sources
And here’s a brief guide Anna put together to getting your toes wet coding in Twine!
