The purpose of this thesis is to contextualise Hindsight, a sustainability-focused historically based city-simulation and resource management game built by the author. The game and game engine were coded from scratch using the C# programming language and the Unity game development suite of tools. The game focuses on the management of the city of London in two time periods, London from 1850 and the other set in 2050. Both versions of the city are divided into 21 zones, each of which can be managed by the player through the construction, upgrading, or destruction of various buildings within the zone. The player must manage both the city’s resources and the resources of the environment upon which the city depends in order to bring about a more sustainable future and bring the 2050-era version of the city back from the brink of environmental devastation. Along the way, the player must address the cultural views of the society they are managing to ensure their reforms will be accepted and can also see those views slowly change over time. The goal of the game is to provide an interactive learning experience for both the historical element of London and the importance of making sustainable choices.

“The Garden and Her Secrets” is a young adult novella focused on creating a fantastical world using ASU buildings as inspiration for the key landmarks in this magical landscape. The story centers around a giftless woman, Fiona, striving to make herself extraordinary by breaking hundreds of years of rules and wielding the musical talent of Belle, the unmagical woman who plays at the local piano bar. Fiona’s quest for both love and unlove means finding where the Secret Garden is hiding within her university, the Philomathian, and exploring her newfound feelings for Belle. Should the Secret Garden choose to remove her hood, there are certainly gifts to be had and secrets to rebury.

Since 800 CE— long before the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1905 — the Havasupai Tribe has depended on the natural resources and diverse ecosystem of the Grand Canyon. A deeper examination of how the national park came to fruition however demonstrates an often negated and harrowing history of land theft, forced assimilation via reservation systems, and genocide. Political ecology is a way of considering how power dynamics, resource management, and society intersect. In the United States, this approach exposes the ways that anti-Indigenous legislation originating in the Department of the Interior has functioned both as a driver of ecosystem degradation and structural barricades to Native American self-determination. In order to achieve a just and sustainable future for all, it is necessary to dismantle hegemonic discourses regarding Indigenous communities.

The aim of my thesis is to expand the placemaking analysis strategies that I learned in my previous thesis pathway course, HON 493: Placemaking in Middle Earth and Earthsea to my favorite fantasy setting, the land of Skyrim in the Elder Scrolls Universe. During the course, the class was encouraged to consider how historical texts, archaeological findings, and anthropological research served as the inspiration behind the worlds that J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin created along with the relationships that their fictional cultures had within those worlds. As the course drew to a close, I couldn’t help but start wondering what inspired the developers of Skyrim, the video game. One of Skyrim’s strongest features is its atmosphere and landscape. An analysis of the creation of place in Skyrim can teach future game developers how to create a land with stories rich enough to lose yourself in for years. I specifically wanted to focus on the burial practices and culture of the Nordic people, since most of the game is spent interacting with them and admittedly raiding the tombs of their ancestors in search of shiny trinkets and powerful artifacts. By delving into the inspirations behind Nordic burials, I hope to gain appreciation for the art of placemaking, and to broaden my knowledge of Nordic history, both fantasy and real. My research initially entailed finding stories about typical Norse burials, but since Skyrim’s burial grounds tend to be filled with the Nordic undead, known as the Draugr, I homed in on how the Norse believed that improper or disturbed burials could result in the rise of the dead. I also shifted attention to the importance of dragons in Norse culture, since they play a vital part in the existence of the Draugr in Skyrim, and I was curious if dragons perhaps played a similar role for the Norse people in the Viking Age. I found academic and historical studies about Viking myths about the origins of dragons and the undead and also studies on how these myths relate to the creation of place in Northern Europe. Lastly, I considered how the dragons and draugr in Skyrim depart from Norse mythology and how the inspirations and departures from Norse mythology deepen our sense of place in the land of Skyrim. This analysis made me realize how essential the Poetic Edda was to Norse mythology, since it’s one of the only written collections of Old Norse poems. The Norse people relied mostly on oral storytelling, which makes it extremely difficult to find any first-hand texts about their culture and lifestyles. After this project, or if I had more time, I think a read-through of the Poetic Edda would be an excellent way of educating myself on the breadth of Norse culture, as opposed to trying to find stories related to what I’ve experienced in Skyrim. I think there’s a limitless way of approaching an analysis of Old Norse culture in modern media and creative works, to the point that I felt I had to narrow my analysis to something simple, but fun, which was homing in on the dragons and draugr that I’ve had to battle thousands of with little previous thought as to their creative origins. The Norse people of the Viking Age may not have had access to our current understanding of the universe, but their speculations led to many fascinating beliefs about the unknown, like tales of dragons and draugar. Their mythology provided them with a unified sense of place and morals in a mercenary culture with loose collective cohesion. When their sense of place is brought into Skyrim and the dragons and draugar are brought to life, it’s easy to lose yourself in a depiction of their world. Skyrim was, and still is, a prime example of the importance of environmental storytelling in open-world games. Long after the graphics and gameplay become outdated, if the environment provides a living, breathing sense of place, then any fantasy game can stand the test of time. For those who aren’t convinced, I encourage them to try out Skyrim and experience their escape into another world with the iconic line, “Hey you, you’re finally awake”.