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From Words to Dice: Game Design Club at the University of Konstanz

Hit the road with us in the Game Design Club as we adapt Sinclair Lewis’s road trip novel Free Air (1919) into a tabletop adventure. Get creative and design the most mind- and tire-blowing journey across early 20th-century America you can think of. The Game Design Club invites students to approach literature and games from a new interdisciplinary perspective. As a platform dedicated to breaking barriers between theory and creative practice, it aims to provide students with a unique opportunity to participate in the transformation of a literary work into an interactive board game experience. Encouraged to think both critically and creatively, students have a chance to create compelling characters, craft gameplay mechanics, design the game board itself, and explore any other ideas they would like to bring to the table – both literally and figuratively. In the winter semester 2024/25, the Club will focus on Sinclair Lewis’s novel Free Air (1919). Through its adaptation into a tabletop adventure, students will explore the portrayal of early automobility as an environmental experience in this prime example of early American road literature. Open to anybody with a passion for literature, an interest in game design, or a curiosity for creative exploration in general, the Game Design Club is a space to collaborate, experiment, and explore the possibilities of storytelling.