Haunting of the East India Company
Soh Kay Min and Kin Chui
University of Westminster | Indie Game Developer
Abstract:

History is not a closed chapter but a recursive system that repeats, mutates and persists in the infrastructures of the present. Haunting of the East India Company is a mauseological experience set in the midst of a collapsing London where the spectres of the British Empire haunt, in the form of grotesque digital renders of historical artworks, artefacts and monuments that stand petrified in the labyrinthine underground crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Embracing notions of fugitivity, the game places the player in a state of constant escape – running to find respite from ecological crises, running through the architectures of history, running from Empire’s afterlives.

Drawing from the historical arc of the East India Company, from the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) to the First War of Indian Independence (1857), the game is a reflection on the CICC School programme’s East India Company Walking Tours at St. Paul’s Cathedral and the East India Docks.


Please allow a minute or so for the game to load. For a more immersive experience, play in full-screen mode with headphones on. Please note that full-screen mode does not work well in Safari. Use your mouse or trackpad for directions, and WASD keys to move. Press F to interact with artefacts; press again for additional text when ↓ appears. Press F1 for quit menu. 

Play Haunting of the East India Company on itch.io

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Hyphen editors Matthias Kispert and Song-won Han for play-testing earlier builds of the game, and Dr Georgie Wemyss and Dr Muhammad Ahmedullah, for their profound and tireless work remembering the other sides of the story of the East India Company.


Biography:

Kay Min is a writer and researcher whose interests revolve around the weather, elemental aesthetics and political ecologies of postwar Southeast Asia.

Kin Chui is an indie game developer with previous lives in film and the visual arts. They spend most of their days fantasising about being a cat.