Classics and History You Can Play

Guides

Sep 28

A classic you have read is a story you know. A classic you play is a story you can change. In a historical AudioGame you step into the role of the protagonist, in their time and place, and at every turning point you decide what they do. The setting and the characters come from literature and history. The path through them is yours.

Literary classics

Dante: The Divine Comedy (12+, 3 chapters, about 23 min). It is 1300 and you are Dante Alighieri, lost in the dark forest. To save your soul you cross Hell, climb Purgatory and try to reach Paradise, with choices that change what you discover along the way.
The Count of Montecristo (12+, 3 chapters, about 1h 20min). Edmond Dantès is barely twenty and already a seasoned sailor on the Pharaoh when a single encounter changes his fate.
Marco Polo Adventures (12+, 6 chapters, about 2h 30min). It is 1271. From Venice to the court of Kublai Khan, across deserts, mountains, gambles, a mutiny and a shipwreck.

History from other angles

Dokuganryu (16+, 2 chapters). Japan, 1584, during the Sengoku period. A minor lord from the North tries to become the greatest samurai of his time, between battles and family intrigue.
My Bonny My Lassie (16+, 3 chapters, about 40 min). The Caribbean in the age of pirates. Three chapters, three points of view: Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Jonathan Barnet, the man who hunted them.
Lapis in Fabula (12+, 6 chapters, about 2 hours). The Graian Alps in 1491. A workshop boy finds a strange stone and is pulled into a world of alchemy and monsters.
The Vala's Whispers (12+, about 9 min). A Viking village in a world ruled by the Norse gods, where Raila, pregnant, must guide her herd through the forest.

Why play a classic instead of reading it?

You remember more. When you have to decide, you pay attention to who people are and what they want.
You see the story from inside. Dante's fear or Dantès' betrayal feel different when you are the one choosing.
It is a way in. After playing Dante or Monte Cristo, the book feels familiar instead of distant.

Teachers and schools can use these stories as a starting point for discussion: what would you have done, and what did the original author choose? If you work in education, you can also create your own AudioGames with Questly, as the students of Scuola Holden did.