REGINA — History is often learned through books or archives, but a Regina web developer has created a game that lets users explore the city’s past and notable figures.
Kenton de Jong created Regina Cemetery Tours back in 2019, which is a top-down version of the existing cemetery, incorporating the design of a classic Gameboy game.
“So it’s a single-player game where users can explore and learn the history of roughly 80 stories,” he said.
As players collect flames, de Jong said different coloured flames will unlock darker stories towards the end.
“Those ones are the more tragic stories of our city's history, the more terrible stories like the Regina Cyclone, or the pandemic is one of them."
In 1912, the Regina Cyclone touched down in the city, killing 28 and injuring 300 people.
Along with stories, de Jong said users can learn about significant citizens of Regina.
“We got Francis Nicholson Darke from Darke Hall. We also have Catherine Evelyn Sheldon-Williams from Sheldon Williams Collegiate. We have other people know him as Howie, as opposed to his real name, Tim Lee, from Government House.”
The idea behind it:
Two years before making the game, de Jong started physical tours at the cemetery to raise money for a headstone remembering the victims of the Spanish influenza.
“These tours were very successful, and you raised the money for the tours in 2017. We carried on the tours in 2018 and 2019.”
In 2019, de Jong’s physical tours came to a halt after he departed Heritage Regina. The city had only allowed businesses to do their own tours in the cemetery before 2022.
“I still wanted to do the tours because I really enjoyed the tours, and the content was very rich and not repetitive stuff we were talking about. So I made the game like a virtual cemetery.”
De Jong said it took six months to develop the game.
A large inspiration for it was 90s-style self-guided walking tour books.
“We took some of the stories from the books, others were from other sources, but it was like the building blocks of it. So we thought we'd pay homage to those,” said de Jong.
Since its launch, de Jong said thousands of people have tried the game.
“A lot of people who have come on the tour said they played the game first. So I know it's been a lot of people. And sometimes schools have played it too. I know sometimes they do it in classrooms. They'll have a different computer, and they'll play the game and see what stories they can find.”
What’s next?
De Jong is planning to add new stories to the game soon.
“Some victims of polio [poliomyelitis], some victims of tuberculosis, but also more stories of people who were buried up in the northern part of the cemetery who were executed at the Regina gallows.
De Jong said he usually adds new stories on the actual tour before incorporating them into the game.
His tours begin in June and run until October, with draws upwards of 400 people yearly.
More information on the game can be found here.
