I am originally from Maui and attended Maui High School, graduating in 2009. My academic journey continued through UH Maui College and then UH Manoa where I completed a BA in English in 2014. If I were an artist's tool, I would be a sketchbook since it is the place to start and hold all types of creative ideas from drawings to snippets of stories.
This paper examines how nostalgia and its variations allow players to connect to the characters they control and meet through primarily narrative-driven video games. Developers create these characters and worlds to tell a story that will captivate their audience and further explore the world and its history through character development, exploration, objects, items, and cutscenes. Giving the characters nostalgic traits helps build their past history, knowledge of the world, attributes, goals, and more to bridge the gap between the player and video game narrative pieces. Players are allowed to learn along with the characters about the world that developers have crafted to build connections from the beginning of the story to the end credits.
The concept of creativity has come a long way. The Old Greeks would call those creative forces muses, other religions referred to them as God. Today people still mostly treat creativity as an aha moment outside the area of influence. However, just by looking at the creative process one can tell, that creativity and creative work is more than just that one "Aha-Moment" (insight). It is clear that generating ideas demands planning and preparation, identifying something of interest like a problem, an opportunity or a challenge, doing research. This then leads to thinking of a solution, allowing time to incubate and iterations before arriving at something “complete.” Students learn that hard work is what makes their ideas come to life and sticktuiveness is what helps them get better.
The Tower delves into how nostalgia serves as a powerful tool for fostering connections between players and characters in narrative-driven video games. By developing an original game, the project examines how nostalgic traits in character design, world-building, and storytelling elements—such as exploration, objects, items, and cutscenes—enhance the emotional depth of the narrative. The study highlights how these elements allow players to learn alongside the characters, creating a shared journey that bridges the gap between the player and the game world from the opening scenes to the end credits.
To play the game: https://mandatong.itch.io/the-tower-ue5