"Fantastical idea" becomes new videogame about Sheffield

"Fantastical idea" becomes new videogame about Sheffield - and it is free to play online

A new videogame has been released, made in partnership with a young producers group, Chol Theatre and the National Videogame Museum. The game, called TimeCrashers, explores an alternative history of Sheffield, whilst also educating the player about local history. It is available to play now for free on Chol Theatre’s Itch.io page.

New videogame has been developed after Chol Theatre created a performance that explores an alternative Sheffield history.

TimeCrashers’ has been developed and created as part of Chol’s Tall Shadow’s Programme. A year long project using co-creation to produce a number of new artworks. The creative team of TimeCrashers was made up of young people working alongside industry professionals to produce this ‘one of a kind’ event.

The process began with a number of creative sessions where Chol’s core team met with the Tall Shadows Young Producer Interns, emerging young artists and experienced professionals to imagine a final ‘show stopping’ event to complete the year long programme . Starting from scratch the group explored a number of themes, ideas and outcomes before deciding on the final time traveling theme.

Each member of the creative team worked as ‘Equal Players’ to develop the idea, create the narrative and decide on the final product. Each section has been carefully crafted by small working groups of film makers, performers, producers and directors before being pulled together to create the final event.

The script and story was first created as an online immersive performance before being reworked into the final gaming experience with expertise and support from the NVM and Digital Game Artist Lex Roberts. The live performance event received glowing feedback from audience members, being described as ‘innovative,’ ‘thoughtful’ and ‘educational’. The team are looking forward to finding out how audiences will receive the reworked interactive game.

Creative Director Lauren Ash said, ‘I am immensely proud of the achievements of this talented group of individuals. Each and every one of them has worked extremely hard to turn our fantastical idea into a reality. We started with huge ambitions and I am happy to say we created a product that is truly one of a kind.’

You can play TimeCrashers for free here https://choltheatre.itch.io/timecrashers