Open Access“The sea has never been friendly to man.” Joseph Conrad’s Topoi in the Digital Game Sunless Sea
Author(s) -
Magdalena Kozyra
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
yearbook of conrad studies, poland
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2084-3941
pISSN - 1899-3028
DOI - 10.4467/20843941yc.19.004.13230
Subject(s) - narrative , subject (documents) , loneliness , video game , art , literature , computer science , psychology , multimedia , world wide web , psychiatry
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.”