A Medieval Game of Life

My project focused on highlighting the differences and similarities between medieval and contemporary family life through an adapted version of Milton Bradley’s The Game of Life. I adapted my original 1980s game board digitally using high-res photos and Procreate, which is a digital illustrating application. I changed the board by erasing the original squares, repainting each square individually with its matching colour, and then supplanting my own text over their written squares. I did this for all 78 squares. I also cut the board in half as it would have been way too long to adapt the entire board. I touched up most of the board, recolouring parts that were faded. I also refashioned their logo, adding the word “medieval” to their logo.

The original game board has a choice for players to take almost immediately involving their education and career aspirations that will affect the rest of their game; players can either choose a shorter path that leads to a business or trade lower “payday,” or a longer route, where the reward is a more prestigious professional career with a high “payday.” After my readings, I decided to have the player’s career based on the gender they chose to be in the game. This disparity between men and women was not surprising, but what my readings on medieval families indicated that was surprising was how blended medieval families seemed to be. Sickness and early deaths meant families were constantly shifting and changing based on who was still alive. This reshuffling theme was present through all the squares I altered and adapted. With the alterations of the squares, I tried to make it clear that death was omnipresent and affected every part of their lives but that they worked to manage it by regrouping and caring for those left behind.

Here is a link to a time-lapse video of my full board adaptation using the illustrating program Procreate:
https://youtu.be/TnsqKMAyOJY

Stacy de Berner