A game to discover Sardinia: The Secret Island - A Sardinian Journey

Internet searches can be full of surprises. Sometimes, looking for information on something, you stumble upon a completely different project. In this case the happy lucky strike made me discover a fantastic example of cultural appreciation through the videogame medium. “The Secret Island – A Sardinian Journey” is a delightful educational game (available both on Android and iOS) that guides the player in a route through different places in Sardinia, and introduces them to real artisanal entities and some figures from Sardinian folklore.

This game is part of the “point and click” genre, that is interacting with the environment by moving the cursor and clicking on the desired objects or characters. The simplicity of the commands serves perfectly the interface of a phone, but there are also many PC videogames that use this system. For instance, the classic investigation games such as Nancy Drew exploit this system to gather clues.

"The Secret Island - A Sardinian Journey" Trailer

The games was developed by the Game Maker Academy of Cagliari, that collaborated on the Memory Wefts project through the school’s major representative, teacher, director of studies, technologic tutor and game designer Andrea Assorgia. He took care of the script together with Lara Melis and Ismaele Marongiu and followed the project from the beginning. The environment design is by Manuela Galletta (painting) and Noemi Lepori with the assistance of Martina Pani, Andrea Serra and Edoardo Sori (line art); character designs and animations are by Stefano Puddu. The game’s soundtrack was composed by Sardinian musician Mebitek, specialized in electronic music.

The protagonist of our story is Daniela, a young Sardinian woman, with a recent degree in archaeology, who after a long while is finally going to pay visit to her dear grandma Felicita. Daniela’s house serves the function of tutorial level: here are explained the commands to move, interact with objects and put them in or take them out of the inventory (our bag). The exposition of important details for the story is provided precisely thanks to the interaction with personal items such as the picture with her grandmother: this encourages the player to check the environment carefully before moving on to the following place.

After leaving home, Daniela reaches Mamoiada, the town where grandma Felicita lives. Here she meets Barbaricina, who leads her to her grandma’s house and offers to guide her through the town. Barbaricina is the first of several characters based on actual existing people: in real life she is a communicator with a blog dedicated to Mamoiada. Once inside the house, Daniela finds a letter from grandma Felicita, who congratulates her for her degree and tells her that a new journey to face without fear awaits for her. She warns her that she went out of town for an errand and that she will not come back before nighttime, so Daniela sits on her armchair and falls asleep. At this point a brief dream begins, in which she sees grandma Felicita from behind, focused on working at the loom, Daniela calls for her three times, getting closer each time, but the dream ends before she can reach her. Once awakened she realizes that her grandma is not back yet and decides to go look for her. Though before leaving the house she meets another character from the internet world: Insopportabile, represented as a fun insolent little bird because he runs a Twitter account. Ironically, Insopportabile now is the last little bird on the platform after the replacement of the famous mascot! After leaving the house, Daniela can go to the museum or the town’s fountain, and once explored these places the other locations will be gradually unlocked.

The Museum of Mediterranean Masks proposes to us the first of a series of quests or missions: inside Daniela first meets the Mamuthones, typical masks of the traditional Sardinian Carnival, who before letting her proceed further asked for some water. Right behind the corner there is a fountain to draw from, but only by using a canteen made with a pumpkin, as they would do in the past. Once the Mamuthones’ thirst is quenched, Daniela meets the Issohadores, the characters that traditionally keep the Mamuthones in line. The two are busy discussing over the date of a theatre play they want to watch (the show Istòs by Teatro Tragodia), and they can’t decided which one of them is right. Daniela offers to help them by checking the poster placed between the museum and her grandma’s house.

Each time Daniela interacts with someone, she obtains information about where her grandma could be at the moment: not everyone knows her, but some can give her directions on how to proceed. In the case of the museum masks they don’t know, but they direct Daniela towards Ottana to the mask of Sardinian Carnival who knows and sees everything: the Filonzana. This is the moment where we start to actually feel the mysterious and mythological atmosphere of the game: sitting and placidly spinning thread, the Filonzana welcomes Daniela and explains that her grandma got lost, and in order to find her she will have to go through a journey leading her to Cabras, Mogoro, Abbasanta and Paulilatino. She will also have to retrieve coloured yarn and two loom pieces: a beam, a rotating cylinder around which you wrap the fabric threads that form the warp, and the shuttle, that is the elongated and carved piece of wood that leads the weft thread through the warp. For now Daniela does not understand why she needs these pieces, but she goes anyway on a classic A.R.S.T. bus towards any town you choose on the map located in the inventory. From this point onwards there is not a preset sequence to follow, as all town are unlocked at the same time and you can decide in which order visit the locations all the times you want.

This type of game layout leaves the player with great freedom to explore the levels. In order to solve the puzzles of the different locations you will often need objects from other places: a classic game design device that rewards the player’s curiosity and encourages them to interact with everything. We will not go over all puzzles, to preserve the enjoyment of the experience, but here’s an example: in the Museum of Mediterranean Masks you can retrieve a beekeeper hat; it will seem an out of place object until you will find a bee hive in Cabras from which you can extract beeswax, which in turn will be needed elsewhere.

We will talk about the locations in the order I visited them while playing: Cabras, Abbasanta, Mogoro, Abbasanta again (archaeological area) and Paulilatino. The latter will be inevitably the final stage regardless of the path, because solving the puzzle in Paulilatino will unlock the real final phase of the game: the necropolis of Anghelu Ruju in Alghero. 

Head of a giant of
Mont'e Prama
(source: wikimedia)

In Cabras we meet a mullet fisherman that will provide us with the beam, hidden in an unexpected place. The fisherman is one of the few characters to not be based on a specific person. The real special guest of this lap can be found in the archaeological site of Tharros: among the empty tombs lays one of the giants of Mont’e Prama! This colossal statue was left partially unearthed, and it politely asks Daniela to change the numbers of the tombs to be dug out, so it will finally be the next in line. In exchange of this courtesy, the giant gifts her with its spear, which will be useful later.

In Abbasanta we can visit the nuraghe Losa and look at an empty recess. We will come back to this place at a later time, when the light will hit the recess in the right way. Moving on we meet the master of dye herbs Maurizio Savoldo, the person grandma usually goes to in order to get coloured yarn. Luckily he has some yarn ready to be dyed in the cauldron, but he lacks the three dye herbs necessary for the primary colors: Rubia peregrina (wild madder) for red, Istatis tinctoria (woad) for indigo from which derive blue and light blue, and Daphne gnidium (flax-leaved daphne) for the mustard colour from which derives yellow. Equipped with ampules to extract the pigment from the herbs, Daniela goes to Paulilatino to gather them. Aside from the herbs, this location is also home of the famous sacred well, but we will go back to it later once all the necessary items are gathered. Back to the cauldron, with a matching game between primary colors we objtain a purple ball of yarn, an orange one and a green one. Unfortunately Savoldo hasn’t seen grandma in quite some time, but Daniel can say she made some progress in her journey.

"Woman with plate
of offerings"
Bronze stautette
(source: nurnet.net)

In Mogoro, in the proximity of nuraghe Cuccurada, Daniela meets the archeo-experimental artisan Andrea Loddo. As the name says, he’s focused on experimenting fusion techniques to create bronze statuettes like in nuragic era. The technique in question is the lost-wax casting, but Andrea forgot the raw materials! There you go, now the wax retrieved earlier finally has its purpose, and Andrea created a “brand new antique sacred bronze statuette” that Daniela can keep for herself.

The bronze statuette, placed in the recess of nuraghe Losa in Abbasanta, becomes the character of Bronze Statuette Woman, who transforms Daniela’s juniper staff into the shuttle. Furthermore, she tells her that her grandma is “in our company”, highlighting once again the supernatural character of this event. Daniela has a fun conversation with the Bronze Woman, noticing a certain similarity with singer Claudia Aru and even singing a piece of her song.

Bronze Stauette Woman in nuraghe Losa

 

The real nuraghe Losa (source: nuraghelosa.net)

Lara Melis and Ismaele Marongiu, members of the Fainas Cultural Association, founders of the Memory Wefts project and writers of the game, explain how these realities have been involved in the project:

The project originated from our idea, of Lara and Ismaele as part of the Fainas Association, then it evolved into the collaboration with Teatro Tragodia, Effimero Meraviglioso, Ditta Luigi Spano and the participation to the Identity_Lab2 tender which provided indirect POR FESR European funds to whoever wanted to pitch projects for the internationalisation of Sardinian cultural endeavours. Later the working group was joined by the Game Maker Academy of Cagliari that developed with us the graphic adventure and helped us releasing it online. Through the long process of creation and development of the videogame we created a map of locations of cultural, touristic and identity-based interest to which we pitched the collaboration, so that the players could enjoy the playing experience and at the same time get to know Sardinia and create an actual touristic route. In fact, in each level of the game there is a “real” character, that is an artisan/tour operator/artist that you can contact to reserve a visit or an experience (i.e. Mamoiada’s hiking guide, Barbaricina). Also each time you finish a level additional info about the location visited in the videogame gets unlocked together with the relative contact information.

After getting good luck wishes from the Bronze Woman, Daniela finally goes to Paulilatino to deliver the items to the sacred well. The moonlight perfectly enters the well, reflecting on the water: above the surface appears a solemn figure dressed in green with a red cape and hat. This is the priestess, who appeared to test Daniela to see if she is ready to reach the final stage of her journey.

The priestess in the sacred well of Saint Cristina

The well of Saint Cristina in Paulilatino (source: pozzosantacristina.com)

"Offering priestess" Bronze
statuette (source: nurnet.net)

The priestess asks Daniela what do the beam, the shuttle and the yarn represent: if Daniela gives the most practical and shallow answer, she will get sent outside to reflect on it until she understands the symbolic value of these tools. In a wonderful metaphor, the beam represents the importance of bonds with our loved ones: the beam holds the threads of the warp, which are family and friends, and we weave our life around them. The shuttle with which we pass the thread represents the time that flows, while the yarn represents strength and the colour represents the joy, both essential to live. Every day we build the tapestry of our life with the support of our loved ones, trying to make it as pretty and as colourful as possible. Once proven that she understood this truth, the priestess acknowledges Daniela’s maturity and directs her toward the necropolis of Anghelu Ruju in Alghero, where her grandma is waiting for her.

Like the threads woven into the warp, all the little hints about grandma Felicita finally take a clear shape, making us foresee what we will find on the final stage. The necropolis is a very interesting place that proposes a final challenge: inside we find a labyrinth of rooms that need to be visited in a certain order, otherwise you will end up at the entrance and have to restart. I had to repeat the labyrinth myself enough times to need to note down on a notepad the right directions! Placing this kind of puzzle at this point of the game is a great idea, because not only it gives us a relatively complex final activity, but it enhances the anticipation for the meeting with grandma giving the player time to ponder on what awaits them.

Daniela gets lost in the necropolis of Anghelu Ruju

Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju (picture taken by Pierluigi Montalbano, source: sardegnaturismo.it)

Once she finally reached the centre of the necropolis, Daniela reunites with her grandma, who approaches her… floating and transparent. Yes, dear grandma Felicita is dead, but she’s serene about it: “Of course it can be, mòrghere totucantus depimus” (We all have to die). She was ill but did not want to worry her granddaughter, therefore she prepared this journey for Daniela so that she would be ready and take with her the final teachings that she could provide. The necropolis is in the middle between the land of the living and the land of the dead, that’s why they can meet. Now the grandma asks for a favour before leaving: to complete the loom with the tools that she collected during the journey, so that she can weave for eternity. Before leaving her, the grandma says that they can meet in dreams, and maybe this is one too. Daniela wakes up on the armchair in her grandma’s house and gets ready to go outside to look for her, “but this is another story and it has to be told another time”.

“The Secret Island – A Sardinian Journey” is a delightful meeting point between tradition and future: during her journey Daniela rediscovers the folklore of her land and reconnects with her origins by learning how the loom so loved by her grandma works. The videogame medium is an ideal tool to introduce myths and places of Sardinia to a wide audience, especially considering that the game includes the translation of dialogues into English as well!

This game, with its cute art style, its interesting story and the fantastic food for thought on live, is absolutely recommended for the experience it offers. What’s more, it introduces many artisan and archaeological realities that can spark curiosity in a wide audience. We can hope that this bond between tradition and modern entertainment can give us other works of this kind!

"S'Ammutadori - We are not alone" by Flora's Room: complete short film analysis

After a long wait, the animated short film S’Ammutadori – We are not alone by Sardinian studio Flora’s Room was publicly released on YouTube! We talked about the short film and the bigger story it’s part of on several occasions. To summarize: S’Ammutadori – We are not alone is an animated adaptation of the chapter “Limes” from the novel L’ultimo amore di Las, in which Las and Anna face through the night their own worst nightmares under the influence of S’Ammutadori. Completed in 2021, the short film was selected in five film festivals:

• 20th Animae Caribe International Animation & Digital Media Festival (2021)
• 37th Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival (2021)
• 28th Sguardi Altrove Film Festival (2021)
• 11th Corto Dino Film Festival (2021)
• 7th Premio Fausto Rossano (2021)

Regarding the visual elements, the characters feature a simple drawing style that allows fluid movements and great expressiveness. Using the program ToonBoom Harmony, I believe the animators applied the “puppet rigging” technique to manipulate the characters, alternating it with hand drawn animation. This technique consists in creating a skeleton and connecting it to different parts of the character model. The skeleton, commonly called rig, can be applied to a tridimensional model or a drawing. The first big wave of puppet rigging animation happened during the late 2000s, due to the rise of the program Adobe Flash.

Example of puppet rig from the video "2020 Character Rigging
Demo Reel (ToonBoom Harmony)" by Eddy Predeira

However, a prototype of this technique was already being experimented during the 1970s in the studios of the famous company Hanna Barbera. The test with the Scanimate animation system reproduced a scene from a previous production of the Scooby-Doo series, however they decided to continue the production normally with hand drawn artwork on acetate sheets. Outside of this experiment, the Scanimate system was normally used for commercials, promotions or openings of tv programs between the late 1960s and the 1980s.

Scanimation system animation test (circa 1970s)

Since then, the technique evolved, allowing more versatility and efficiency in the animation work. ToonBoom Harmony is currently the most used program by professionals all around the world when it comes to 2D animation. In the hands of competent animators puppet rigging animation can be just as nice and dynamic as traditional animation, and this short film is proof of that. The movements of S’Ammutadori in particular show skill in the scene of his appearance. The inclusion of blurred movements (also called animation smear), a typical trick of traditional animation, makes the movement more natural and not look mechanical.

Componidori mask above Anna's bed

Meanwhile the environments, although stylized, are full of details that put them between reality and Sardinian folklore. For instance, let’s look at Anna’s room. Above her bed there is a mask of Componidori, main characters of the tradition of Sa Sartiglia, hanging together with sa Pippa ‘e Maiu, the double rod of violets used to bless people during the celebration. We talked more about this in a complete article last year. Furthermore, the floor has a pattern of hexagonal tiles typical of the first decades of the 1900s.

Anna's room

Las’ room has a floor of stone tiles and a fireplace in the corner, a layout that is not unusual in traditional Sardinian homes. There is a knight mask and a Sartiglia star above Las’ bed as well. The village the protagonists live in is a mix of real features of Sardinian villages and fantasy elements, such as the big trees full of colorful lights. The world of Las seems to be a more peaceful and balanced cohabitation between human constructions and nature, as it could be already seen in the concept art for the movie presented at Cartoon Springboard 2021.

S'Ammutadori in Las' room

One of the most interesting features of this short film is the fact that its narration is non-verbal: although there are no words, the events are shown in an intuitive enough way that tells us everything we need without a word. However, this doesn’t mean that it lacks sound: Chiara Floris’ soundtrack and the sound effects picked by Beatrice Mele (obtained thanks to the Arbus Sardinian Knives Museum, the "canto a tenore" singer Giuliano Sannai and the cave of Ispinigoli in Dorgali) play on the right emotional strings and represent well the atmosphere of nightmares.

Las comforts Anna

The figure of S’Ammutadori is used as a catalyst to put the characters in front of their biggest fears, originating from their childhood traumas. Anna witnessed her father’s murder, which seems to be a premeditated action. In her nightmare she relives this tragic event and attempts to assault S’Ammutadori, which limits himself to escape and leave her alone. The tears of her silent crying slowly create a river. Meanwhile, Las relives her experience of domestic violence by the hand of her drunk father. Exiting the memory, Las finds in the woods some clothes of her father, hidden in the greenery like a beast. This scene represents how this man lost any trace of humanity in the eyes of his daughter. Las finds on a boat the child version of herself, giving her back the teddy bear she lost and sleeping with her on the boat. She wakes up alone because she reunited with her child self, and the boat is moving along the river. Las reaches the beginning of the river and comforts Anna, ending the dream. After waking up from their nightmares, the girls meet for real, with Las under Anna’s window, concluding the short film.

Even though it’s part of a bigger story, this short film can be enjoyed on its own and it’s a very interesting visual and narrative experience, clearly the product of passion and skill of all the team of Flora’s Room. And after “S’Ammutadori – We are not alone”, what else? Well, I am pleased to announce that the presentation at Cartoon Springboard 2021 was a success! In fact, it won’t be a movie like initially planned, but a tv animated series in development with Spanish company Mago Production. The archive page of Cartoon Springboard 2021 presents The World of Las as follows:

"The World of Las" tells the story of a girl who wants to get rid of a bad memory that keeps her chained to the past, in order to finally be able to move on with her life. Las lives on a planet called "Land of the Real", where the soul is defined with the name of "Sacred Body" and is treated with the same criteria with which the body is medicated. Las would like to become an artisan of Golden Scars, but she's unable to fully carry out this passion because she's conditioned by childhood trauma, due to which she doesn't have the right psychological predisposition to practice that type of profession. To overcome this trauma, Las will set off on a journey where she will retrace past events and meet magical creatures that will help her find herself.

Currently, the page dedicated to The World of Las on the website of Flora’s Room presents three concept art illustrations, with a different art style from the one used in the short film, but just as stylized and charming as the first. While waiting for more news, let’s admire the wonderful illustrations of the future tv series. A new world inspired by Sardinian folklore will soon open to European viewers!

Flora's Room and S'Ammutadori in 2022: updates

Recently I was thinking about the short film “S’Ammutadori” by Sardinian studio Flora’s Room (here the in-depth article from last year), and with curiosity I decided to check if there were any news regarding public distribution of the complete work. To this day, “S’Ammutadori” is not accessible online in its entirety, but there is still other good news.

The project for the film “The World of Las”, an animated feature inspired by the novel “L’ultimo amore di Las”, was selected to participate in the 2021 edition of Cartoon Springboard, the pitching event for projects by young talents from animation schools of all Europe. We briefly talked about this event in the context of Cartoon Digital that took place in Cagliari in May 2021. Cartoon Springboard 2021 took place in the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia from 26 to 28 of October, and 39 young talents presented 24 projects, with a wide variety of themes and categories of audience to aim at. “The World of Las” is not the only Italian project:

• Fishing Stars, a film presented by Giona Dapporto, tells the story of a time in which the stars are in the water and reflect into the sky. Jane, Mike, Rambo and Paul have the mission of saving them from the greedy hunters that want to take them. 
• Astrid and the School of Astronauts, by Federica Carbone and Anita Verona, is a series of 52 episodes of 7 minutes each starring the albino 7 year old kid Astrid, a space enthusiast who wants to be an astronaut. With her friends she lives adventures among planets and solar systems learning the rules of the universe.
• Chakra Warriors, by Claudia Giancola, Alen Timofeyev, Marco Auddino and Sushant Sudhakaran, is a series of 30 episodes of 22 minutes each aimed at an audience between 15 and 24 years old. In a world where seven kingdoms do not receive water and power equally from the river Satyadham, the protagonist Shakti investigates on the water pollution but they cause a mortal accident for their sister. Feeling guilty, Shakti can only hope in an ancient legend: a wish will be granted to the seven “Chakra Warriors”, people who obtained supernatural abilities after opening their chakras. 

Thanks to the official pictures of the event we can take an exclusive peek at the presentation of The World of Las and an example of concept art for the film. 

Francesca Floris and Fabrizio di Palma present "The World of Las" at Cartoon Springboard
(photo by © Carlos Sevilla Martinez, 2021)

Flora’s Room studio adventures don’t end here, instead they reached America! A few months ago, in February, co-founders Francesca Floris and Fabrizio di Palma presented the studio to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. They talked about Sardinia, its culture and traditions represented through the media of animation. They elaborated on the fight to reach inclusivity, equality and a better representation of lesser known or misrepresented communities, and how animation can be a learning and development tool for children. Furthermore, during their stay Flora’s Room representatives could talk with the Native American community of the Navajo, in Utah, and ponder on the similarities and differences between their history and Sardinian history.

S'Ammutadori in Los Angeles
(source: Flora's Room facebook)

The two co-founders did not travel alone: on the studio’s facebook page can be seen some charming pictures of S’Ammutadori in different American landscapes visited by them. Despite being a nightmarish character, this creature is also the lovely mascot of the studio and seeing it in mundane situations is always funny.

One thing is for sure, we will attentively follow the path of these promising productions!

Crowdfunding for the second chapter of "I misteri di Ichnos": Ombre nella notte

Previously in the article about "Il volo di Aquilino" we talked about Ignazio Dessì's production company Ju Film and the soft-horror movie "La strega di Belvì" (The witch of Belvì), first of a cycle of stories called "I misteri di Ichnos" (The mysteries of Ichnos). A month ago, Ju Film's YouTube channel released an announcement for the opening of a crowdfunding campaign for the production of the second chapter of the series, "Ombre nella notte" (Shadows in the night).

The cycle of "I misteri di Ichnos" was created to tell Sardinia's myths to the new generations with a modern and captivating approach for the audience. Mentioning the words of the crowdfunding page: 

"The generation working with Ju Film may be the last who had the luck of living the emotion of scary stories right from the voice of their own grandparents. We want those characters and legends to not be lost and instead come back to their main target, children. For this we decided to frame them in a series of episodes that narrate them with a language and media close and captivating to the youngest." 

The crowdfunding will cover the expenses of the technicians and actors working on the pre-production and production phases of the film. As in many crowdfunding projects, the amount donated corresponds to a reward that each time adds up to the previous prizes tied to a smaller donation. It begins with thanking the donors in the credits, it continues with links to watch the first film and a poster, up to a physical copy in USB pen of the first chapter and the chance of being present during the filming of "Ombre nella notte"! The project of the second chapter started two years ago, during which the planning phase ended, and the pre-production phase is still ongoing, hoping to start with the production as soon as possible.

The first chapter, "La strega di Belvì", was released in the movie theaters in 2018, with a good result regarding the audience's opinion. In the film, a group of kids passionate about mysteries and legends investigate the case of Belvì's newborns, all unusually affected by anemia. In the small village the young investigators meet a few characters of ancient legends, among them the witch Sùrbile and the prankster spirit Maschinganna. Furthermore, a tale is mentioned about an ancient curse affecting the last of seven sisters: she will lose her happiness and humanity, bringing concern and discouragement among the inhabitants, until someone would save her and end the spell.

In an interview at ilsarrabus.news, to the question "What message do you want to send to those that will watch the film?" director Matteo Fadda answered: 

"The message is surely to find nourishment in fantasy, imagination and listening to ancient stories. Losing these stories would mean becoming dry and understanding less the world in front of us. Dreaming and being scared listening to an ancient tale or a myth allows us to keep fantasy and imagination alive. With these we can live better. Humankind in any era needs to dream and fantasize, if you can contribute to this, you absolutely need to do it."

I think it's very important to support the local productions, especially if they tell and pass on myths and legends of our popular tradition, so very underutilised. Normally fantasy stories are inspired by Anglo-Saxon or North European folklore, and the inclusion of Sardinian myths bring a breath of fresh air to the genre and introduces them to a new generation! Sardinia has a great amount of myths that could be protagonists of new interesting stories, we already have "S'Ammutadori" and "I misteri di Ichnos", who knows which will be the next legend?