Looking for more in Book Week Scotland?
Rabbie Burns Saves the World: an 8 Bit Game
Take control of Scotland's finest writers and lead them in a quest to save the world.
How to play
- Phone: touch to move and interact
- Mouse: click to move and interact
- Keyboard: use arrow keys to move and space key or enter to interact
(this link will open in a new window)Play in large screen mode (desktop only)
Ever wondered why Scottish Literature punches so far above its weight? Yearned to lead a team of Scottish writers to fight against an unspecified horror? Want to know what Rabbie Burns would look like in a panama hat? A new 8-bit game, made exclusively for Book Week Scotland by Scottish poet Calum Rodger, allows you to take control of Scotland's finest writers, and in the guise of Rabbie Burns himself, lead them in a quest to save the world. Find lost words, put recalcitrant characters back in their place and become one with the mountains on this epic journey, which will prove once and for all that the pen really is mightier than the sword!
No writers were harmed in the making of this game. Playing does not give control of any writers in real life, and may not actually save the world.
Credits
Rabbie Burns Saves the World! (And, by Extension, Book Week Scotland) by Calum Rodger for Book Week Scotland 2020.
Additional music by Roy Donk.
With thanks to: Nyla Ahmad, Danny Scott and Philippa Cochrane of Scottish Book Trust.
Additional thanks to: the Edwin Morgan Trust, the National Library of Scotland, Bloodaxe, Canongate, Carcanet.
Very special thanks to: Jackie Kay.
This game is inspired by and makes use of the following classics of Scottish literature:
- Robert Burns, ‘To a Mouse’, 1785
- Jackie Kay, 'Old Tongue', in Darling: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe: 2007)
- Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain, 1977 (Canongate: 2011)
- Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1961 (Penguin: 2000)
- Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886
Credit and gratitude to the following RPG Maker MV Plugin Developers whose work was used in this game:
- Ellye, Galv, Hime, Hudell, Lloyd (Red Iron Labs), Victor Sant and Yanfly.
This game also uses the following sounds from freesound.com under a Creative Commons licence, with gratitude:
- Cartoon – Bat/Mouse Squeak by Breviceps
- Highland Winds FX by Evil_Ear_Recordings
- Applause_encore by Zihris
- Bricks Falling 2 by Benboncan
- Cornish Seacave by plantmonkey
- Eating Soup by MilanKovanda
Thank you for playing!