Interactive Fiction for Historical Learning: A case study from “Home of the Blizzard: An Antarctic Adventure”

The use of games for historical learning is well established within both the education and collections disciplines, with the use of boardgames, scavenger hunts, quizzes, and escape rooms increasingly common throughout Australia’s GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) landscape. Other genres are less well explored, and there is a lack of examples of digital games that address specific historical learning aims within the Australian curriculum. In collaboration with the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), this article details the development and user testing of the digital interactive fiction (IF) game Home of the Blizzard: An Antarctic Adventure (2022). This game centres around the Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14, as a pivotal point in Australia’s history of exploration and scientific research in the Antarctic. Particularly, incorporating a significant amount of Frank Hurley’s 1913 film “Home of the Blizzard”, held by the NFSA. Very little research has been conducted into the potential use of interactive fiction games for historical learning within Australia, with this article exploring the potential of such games as tools to expand engagement with cultural collections. A series of user tests were conducted, including with two classes of primary school students, which concluded the game was fun, engaging, and had significant learning potential in school settings. This research highlights the necessity of user-testing games developed by GLAM’s and the great promise of IF for collections-based history education moving forward.