TY - JOUR
TI - “The sea has never been friendly to man.” Joseph Conrad’s Topoi in the Digital Game Sunless Sea
AU - Kozyra, Magdalena
TI - “The sea has never been friendly to man.” Joseph Conrad’s Topoi in the Digital Game Sunless Sea
AB - The aim of this paper is to find connections between the digital game Sunless Sea (Failbetter Games, 2015) and Joseph Conrad’s novels, particularly the ones touching on the subject of sea voyage. Sunless Sea is an exploration role-playing game which focuses on the topics of sailors’ loneliness, dual nature of the sea, and above all, player’s inevitable failure. These tropes are shown not only in the narrative structure of the game, but also in its mechanics and design choices. I believe that the game is heavily inspired by the notion of maritime life created by Conrad, as indicated by the quote from The Mirror of the Sea opening the game: “The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.”
VL - 2019
IS - Vol. 14
PY - 2021
SN - 1899-3028
C1 - 2084-3941
SP - 83
EP - 92
DO - 10.4467/20843941YC.19.004.13230
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/yearbook-of-conrad-studies/article/the-sea-has-never-been-friendly-to-man-joseph-conrads-topoi-in-the-digital-game-sunless-sea
KW - Joseph Conrad
KW - Sunless Sea
KW - digital games
KW - cRPG
KW - sea
KW - sailor