Today NEXT Studio released a short video documentary about the Manchu culture and folklore, as presented in the new folk music adventure game, Nishan Shaman, currently available for free on the App Store where it has a 4.7 star user rating and has been featured on the App Store and Google Play.
Nishan Shaman was created by a Chinese graduate team operating under “Project Kepler”, a special training program for Tencent Games’ graduates backed by NEXT Studio and Tencent Games to support innovative titles and minority cultures. The game is created in the paper cutting art style featured in The Search for the Manchu, and features dramatic shamanistic music that combines rhythmic game mechanics with musical storytelling.
Check out ‘The Search for the Manchu’ Mini Documentary here:
“One of the goals of Project Kepler is to preserve Chinese cultural heritage by educating people through new and fun mediums. This mini documentary supports the Nishan Shaman by showing some of the key attributes of Manchu culture that inspired the whole game concept,” said Steven Wu, Shenzhen department manager at NEXT Studio.
The game is heavily inspired by The Tale of the Nishan Shaman, the one great surviving text of Manchu literature, where a female shaman resurrects the son of a rich landowner. The uplifting and challenging gameplay of Nishan Shaman revolves around a system unique to the musical game genre: a semi-circular area of influence around the titular character which must be tapped and pressed in time with the beat in order to ward off the demons of the underworld. Nominated for the Best Sound award at Casual Connect London 2018, the game features five background folk music tracks created by a student from Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Nishan Shaman is available in 12 languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Russian and others.
