US video game adapts Ukrainian fairy tale

American video game developers Colabee Studios have unveiled a game based on Ukrainian writer and poet Lesya Ukrainka’s Forest Song (Lisova Pisnya) (1911).

The videogame adaptation of the classic dramatic fairytale allows players to take on the role of a peasant who has an encounter with a Forest Spirit and step into the spirit world to navigate the clash between the supernatural inhabitants of the forest and the world of humans.

“Ukrainian mythology has so much to teach us, but for people outside of eastern Europe it has remained largely inaccessible. Having grown up surrounded by these magical tales it is so exciting now to be able to share this part of my culture with gamers everywhere,” Dima Veryovka, Colabee Studios co-founder and Creative Director, who has a Ukrainian background, is quoted as saying by Ukraine Today.

The game involves numerous mythological creatures found in Slavic folklore that would perhaps otherwise be unfamiliar, such as the lisovik/leshy (the male woodland spirit) and mavka (wood nymph).

Developers based in both Seattle and Kiev have worked on the game, under the guidance of Ukrainian culture and folklore experts, including faculty from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Lesya Ukrainka (d.1913) was one of Ukraine’s best-known poets and writers, as well as a political and civil activist.

Source: Ukraine Today