Final Reflections
The showcase and presentations that followed went well considering our Professor was unable to join us due to illness, but was available to chat via Slack for anyone who had questions or feedback about our project. I was the last person to present, though admittedly I had cut it super short to give time for our keynote speaker, Nathaniel (Nate) Sheidley, who is a curator at the Old State House Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Originally I had planned on going into more detail on the origins of our game name and logo, along with its historical significance with the Boston Massacre. I also gave a brief mention of our website as a public interface so they could see our progress with the game and test/experience some elements by demoing live sounds or videos from play-testing.

Sadly I was unable to talk more about our PR side by having us expand the reach of our game and drawing more people into our project, but Nate made some points that I feel helped fill in this gap. He noted that the Old State House Museum would be renovated and be completed hopefully in time for the 100th Observation of the Boston Massacre, where our game will (hopefully) be completed in time to become part of telling the history of the Boston Massacre. There are several hundred thousand visitors to the Old State House each year, which should help give our project its maximum outreach into the community and help spread awareness of how our project attempts to tell more about a historical event with game elements.

I felt this class was a great way to see a new perspective on how people are educated about America’s history. As it was my first term with a history course along with this optional game development class, I feel this class has added new ways to think about the challenges museums face in presenting history to the public in ways that are entertaining yet still keep historical accuracy. The renewed interest in the American Revolution and the events surrounding it have made this class more relevant to the world and I enjoyed seeing how a game would be developed for public use.

Unfortunately, I will not be officially helping develop the game next term or over the summer due to scheduling conflicts. However, I will be helping on a volunteer basis whenever I have the time and will be continuing to maintain this website and will be able to show more people on how our progress is going along. Perhaps I will be able to officially rejoin next year as my time become more flexible and see how far the game has developed from there. Until then, I wish the team the best as they continue to work on this amazing project.