Game design as multimodal intervention: Exploring Cuban media reality through the ethnographic video game <i>PakeTown</i>

Abstract The mobile video game PakeTown presents an ethnographic depiction of the history of alternative media distribution in Cuba. It is a joint project between a multimodal anthropologist and a Cuban media artist working with ConWiro, an independent Cuban game studio. We discuss our game as a multimodal intervention that generated new conversations with our research participants, new modes of collaboration, as well as new knowledge about our field that we wouldn't have been able to gather through traditional (non‐interventionist) fieldwork methods such as interviews and participant observation. Developing PakeTown in conjunction with one of the initial video game companies in Cuba's still tightly regulated private sector provided a valuable understanding of how its founders, as key figures in the islands' emergent digital culture, overcame complex technological and political constraints at a time of profound social change. Moreover, the process of designing and marketing the game to resonate with local audiences offered us intriguing new insights into Cubans' everyday media consumption patterns. A supplemental guide to teaching this article is available at visualanthropologyreview.org/var411‐suppl‐koehn.