Historical accuracy, research and inspiration

[Pidesco]

I guess this is a question for Josh and Hannah but anyone can chime in with suggestions for reading material. 

 

What texts have you been using as sources for this game? Any first hand sources for 16th century Bavaria available in English? What's the best current research about the area and time period? 

[Wormerine]

If no one responds you might want to try here:

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

[Boeroer]

Josh speaks German and has aquired quite the collection of German history books of the period. He occasionally posts new purchases on Twitter and some of those books are really hard to get and/or quite expensive. Also sometimes very specialized stuff about nuns, monks and so on. Now we know why. But I guess he would have bought and read them anyway...

Some of them seem to be written in old dialects which even I find hard to read (I studied German Philology back in the days and am rel. fluent in Low German bc. my Grandma spoke not much else - and my wife's Bavarian so I understand that dialect quite well. Doesn't help a lot with those rather old German texts). Also some of the contemporary German books (if not all of them) are written in infamous Academical German - which is truly horrendous to read.  

The research must have been a ton of work. 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Boeroer

[Pidesco]

6 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Josh speaks German and has aquired quite the collection of German history books of the period. He occasionally posts new purchases on Twitter and some of those books are really hard to get and/or quite expensive. Also sometimes very specialized stuff about nuns, monks and so on. Now we know why. Bit I guess he would have bought and read them anyway...

Some of them seem to be written in old dialects which even I find hard to read (I studied German Philology back in the days and am rel. fluent in Low German bc. my Grandma spoke not much else - and my wife's Bavarian so I understand that dialect quite well. Doesn't help a lot with those rather old German texts). Also some of the contemporary German books (if not all of them) are written in infamous Academical German - which is truly horrendous to read.  

The research must have been a ton of work. 

In that case I'd like for Pentiment to feature a bibliography, and plentiful notes for the optional depth of knowledge. 

[Gorth]

14 hours ago, Boeroer said:

 Also sometimes very specialized stuff about nuns, monks and so on.

Ooh, kinky!

[bugarup]

I know it's going to be well researched and seriously well-prepared but I cannot help but recall Joe Richardson's adventure games  (highly recommended btw):

 

[Boeroer]

Saw today on Twitter that an alumni of Josh (nowadays history professor specialized on medieval medicine and religion) consulted on Pentiment:

to the Tweet

Edited June 15, 2022 by Boeroer

[Lorfean]

On 6/13/2022 at 5:48 PM, Pidesco said:

In that case I'd like for Pentiment to feature a bibliography, and plentiful notes for the optional depth of knowledge. 

I am pretty sure that Josh said in one of the interviews that it will have a in-game glossary that will tell you more about people, places, etc. in the game should you need it.

 

I imagine it works similar to Deadfire's in-dialog tooltips.

[xzar_monty]

On 6/13/2022 at 6:48 PM, Pidesco said:

In that case I'd like for Pentiment to feature a bibliography, and plentiful notes for the optional depth of knowledge. 

Now we're talking.

I got into computer games back when Zinclair ZX-81 was the hottest thing around and Red Ants was the game to go to, and I must say I didn't think we would ever reach these levels of erudition. Red Ants taught me precious little about myrmecology...

[algroth]

On 6/13/2022 at 12:48 PM, Pidesco said:

In that case I'd like for Pentiment to feature a bibliography, and plentiful notes for the optional depth of knowledge. 

This might help out somewhat!

[Pidesco]

3 minutes ago, algroth said:

This might help out somewhat!

Indeed it did help. 

[xzar_monty]

Yes, lovely! Thank you ever so much.

[Wormerine]