''Field Guide to Memory'' is a one-player, narrative, pen-and-paper journaling,

indie role-playing game An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside traditional, "mainstream" means. Varying definitions require that commercial, design, or conceptual elements of the game stay under the control of the creator, or that the game ...

Shing Yin Khor Shing Yin Khor is a Malaysian-American artist and cartoonist. They are the creator of the comics ''The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66'', ''The Center for Otherworld Science'' and ''Say it with Noodles'', the last of which won them an Igna ...

and Jeeyon Shim about the mentee of a missing

cryptozoologist Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...

traveling across the United States in search of information about their missing mentor.

Gameplay

''Field Guide to Memory'' is a "keepsake game" where players create a physical artifact as part of the

game mechanics In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...

. Players follow daily prompts that ask them to write, create art, and do other physical activities in the real world, often involving nature.

Publication history

In December 2020,

and Jeeyon Shim launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

to fund the creation of the game. The crowdfunding campaign surpassed the goal of $18,000 and raised just over $62,000 with the support of 1817 backers. Initially, the game was run as a live game in February 2021 for Kickstarter backers who received the game prompts via email over the course of four weeks. The game was then repackaged as a PDF of daily prompts available for purchase on

Itch.io Itch.io (stylized as itch.io) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie games. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 500,000 games and items (assets, ebooks, music) . Itch.io also allows users to host ...

Reception

''Field Guide to Memory'' won the 2021

IndieCade IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance."Fritz, Ben"IndieCade, the video game industry's Sundance" Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2009, accessed July 21, 2011 ...

Award in the best live game category. Jeeyon Shim was awarded the 2021

Diana Jones Award The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The original award was made from a burned book encased in lucite. The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded t ...

for "Best Emerging Designer" largely based on her work on ''Field Guide to Memory''. Kelly Knox for

Nerdist Nerdist Industries, LLC is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast ( The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a network of podcasts, a premium con ...

called it the best solo (one-player)

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participan ...

. Greg Loring-Albright at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Ar ...

wrote about the game in his Ph.D. research on keepsake games.

References

Fantasy role-playing games Indie role-playing games Journal-writing games Kickstarter-funded tabletop games Role-playing games introduced in 2021 Tabletop games {{Rpg-stub