Fife video game designer turns trauma into fantasy adventure

Calum Robb, from Newport, is working on Roykfern with a small team of volunteers for his honours project for his fourth year at Abertay University.

In the point-and-click adventure, the player controls inquisitive and anxious young Roland, who, by accident, ends up on a journey to the furthest reaches of Roykfern to find the Lord Magistrate of Music and to unlock the secrets of his past, as well as saving his beloved homeland.

The game is described as a journey about self-discovery, music, dealing with mental health, and what it means to be yourself.

It is a passion project for the 33-year-old, who has learned how to live with his mental health in a positive way.

Calum was sexually abused when he was 11, and never dealt with it until late 2019.

For 22 years he lived with depression, anxiety and panic attacks, but would self-medicate with alcohol and drugs.

Now clean and sober, he has found that meditation and music, among other things, help him live with what happened to him.

With that, he wanted to use elements of music and meditation in Roykfern, and show how he deals with depression and anxiety in a beautifully crafted game.

Calum, who is studying sound and music for games at university, admits he is not a “heavy gamer”.

“I did my masters in design,” he explained.

“I got into creating and producing music. It helped me and kept me sane. I then jumped into third year.

“It was when I was at my worst, drinking non-stop. That was in 2018. Then last year I realised I had a choice, change path or die.”

He chose the former, and started to focus on meditation and music.

Then, for his honours project, he came up with the idea for the game and presented it to his friends. Calum has focused on the design of the game, how it will look and play, and creating the songs for it.

“We have another four chapters we want to make,” Calum said. “We’ve sent the idea off to producers. The dream would be to work on this in a full-time capacity and release it in a couple of years.”

The group, now known as ArrowGames, want to raise £50,000 to continue working on the game. To make a donation, visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/arrowgames/roykfern-a-musical-narrative-adventure.