Page turner
Yaza Games’ debut strategy game takes ink-spiration from colourful medieval marginalia
Inkulinati takes ink-spiration from colourful medieval marginalia
Long before today’s teenagers doodled in the backs of their geometry notebooks, medieval monks hand-copying manuscripts kept themselves entertained by including sketches of penis trees, fighting snails and donkeys playing trumpets with their rear ends. Inkulinati is a turn-based strategy game all about such marginalia; using ‘living ink’, you scribble ridiculous troops that do battle across the page. “It’s Worms meets Monty Python And The Holy Grail,” designer Wojtek Janas tells us.
The design of each unit is based on drawings from real historical manuscripts, chosen by artist Dorota Halicka. The team works with a medievalist to ensure authenticity. “It’s important to me that every detail, like the shape of the sword, the clothes of the character or the visual effects of the fire, look like they’ve been taken from a real manuscript,” Halicka says. The realistically rendered hands that draw Inkulinati’s bizarre warriors help give the impression that fights are really playing out under your fingers – as do the comedic battle summaries. The player “writes history, you might say,” Janas says.
For Halick and Janas, it’s about making history relatable. “Maybe if we can show that even people in the Middle Ages laughed at silly things, it’ll be okay for us to accept and laugh at our modern silliness too,” Janas says Yaza Games is working hard to have Inkulinati make a great first impression when it comes to PC, so keep your quills on ice for a year or two yet.