Who are we? What is the secret of our identity? Does the answer lie in Scotland’s past?
The characters and stories in the following game were inspired by historical paintings by Scottish artists in the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection.
We invite you to take this journey of discovery through seven ruins left over from Scottish history. Each ruin is inhabited by a ghost whose story has to be told – before they can be released from their haunting. You must discover their identity and the riddle that was their life. Find each character’s story depicted in their heraldic crest – and discover how we have got to where we are today.
The young people who created these stories were attending a Creative Pathways course, led by Impact Arts. Flashback is part of the Ruined: Reinventing Scottish History exhibition, at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. It has been created as a partnership between the National Galleries of Scotland, Tinderbox Collective and Impact Arts.
© National Galleries of Scotland, Impact Arts, Tinderbox Collective and the artists, 2021.
The game
Please note – the game may take a little while to load, and works best on Chrome. You may also need to click the game screen for the game to start and the controls to work.
Game Controls (play on PC with a keyboard)
WASD keys to move and jump
X to talk to characters and cycle through text
Z to exit text at end of dialogue
Artist/Creator Credits
Stories by:
Gemma Allan, Alice Simpson, Blake Ross, Stacie Dinning, Sarah Kessler, Shannon McLeish and Erin Jones
Art by:
Gemma Allan, Alice Simpson, Blake Ross, Stacie Dinning, Sarah Kessler, Shannon McLeish and Erin Jones
Game design by:
Gemma Allan, Alice Simpson, Blake Ross, Stacie Dinning, Sarah Kessler, Shannon McLeish, Erin Jones, Amelie Anderson-Quigley and Dylan Stevens
Additional art, animation, sound design, music, game design and creative direction by Tinderbox Collective and associated artists:
Prolly Edible, Dominika Jackowska, Matthew Tulloch, and Luci Holland
Special thanks to our partners:
Impact Arts, and the leaders of their Creative Futures Course: Val Cannon and Val Knox, attended by the young artists listed above. Thanks also to Rebecca Fitzgerald and Iona Cameron for supporting the young people to develop their work.
