Preserving Hmong Batik Through Video Games

Abstract

This ongoing research explores how video games can contribute to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. Blockbuster titles such as Tomb  Raider (Crystal Dynamics,  2008), Black  Myth:  Wukong (Game  Science,  2024) and Assassin’s  Creed (Ubisoft, 2007) remind players of cultural heritage through their virtual architecture and narrative worlds. Although these entertainment-focused AAA releases were not created expressly for preservation, they expose previously little-known places, names and imagery to broad audiences (Balela,  2015). As a medium with vast potential, video games can therefore play a distinctive role in protecting cultural heritage by combining education with engaging, interactive experiences. Batiked, a Unity-based 2D platformer created in this project, adopts a two-tone Hmong batik palette and rule-based tile mapping to translate the sequential logic of wax-resist batik—waxing, dyeing and melting—into virtual pattern creation and erasure. The game demonstrates how minimalist visuals can maintain cultural legibility while re-imagining an intangible craft process as a spatial puzzle, all without textual exposition.