Popularizing folk stories among young generation through mobile game approach

Abstract

Folktale is part of people's culture and heritage which represent an identity of a society. Malaysia is rich with folktale which is traditionally transmitted orally from generation to generation. Unfortunately this heritage is slowly being forgotten by our young generation. We studied digital game as a means to deliver folktales to technologically savvy youngsters. m-MyTale is a mobile game developed for mobile device using popular Malay folktale “Puteri Gunung Ledang” or “The Princess of Mount Ledang” as back story, to give awareness and promote the stories to young generation especially on culture and heritage. The game was developed with storytelling approach using simple 2D animation. The back story is based on a marriage proposal by the Sultan of Malacca, Mahmud Syah, to the princess. The game challenge and levels are based on the seven requirements stated by the princess. Each level required an item to be collected by the player to complete the game. Two other modules are play guide and synopsis of the story. This paper discusses the design and development of a mobile game to motivate young generation especially teenagers on their culture and heritage.