From Dinosaur World in Cave City and Forest Giants in Shepherdsville to Giant Fork in the Road in Franklin, the free game developed by the Kentucky Tourism Office gives people a chance to explore some of the lesser-known attractions of the Bluegrass State.
(Screenshot | Kentucky Tourism Office)
The Great Big Kentucky Adventure, released in May, allows players to take a side-scrolling tour of 12 different Kentucky cities and their landmarks.
With classic chiptune theme music and old school pixel art style, it feels similar to the classic Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games, where players can slay monsters, jump over obstacles, collect coins and cookies, and explore Kentucky.
(Screenshot | Kentucky Tourism Office)
Justin Gammon, a South Carolina designer and illustrator who created the game’s art and design, said that giving real-world environments this kind of aesthetic allows tourists and residents to see these places in a fresh light.
“There are things going on in your state or area that you’re not aware of or that you’re used to, and then when that’s all given to just kids in a new context, it opens their eyes to what’s out there in the outside world that they can really touch and visit,” Gammon said. “I think that was the plan all along.” [to] This game gives kids a sneak peek and encourages them to actually visit real places.”
Level up
In the woods near Lake Malone in Muhlenberg County in western Kentucky, lives a family of giants.
The six statues that make up the Big Twigs Family, some of which stand as tall as 17 feet, have been the subject of local tourism campaigns, children’s books and currently the subject of the “Great Big Kentucky Adventure” game.
Misty Stanley is the director of the Muhlenberg County Tourism Commission, and she said it made sense for Muhlenberg to get involved in the project.
“I think this game is just a way to get the word out about Big Twigs and get people from two, three, four hours away to want to come to Muhlenberg County,” Stanley said.
Stanley said he hopes the statue at Lake Malone State Park will draw tourists who will play the game just like they would in real life. Local tourism officials said visitor numbers have increased by more than 20% each month since the statue was installed in 2021 and 2022.
Gammon said his favorite level he designed was the one that features a mural of downtown Paducah and the seawall depicting the history of the town and the area.
“Kentucky has a lot of lesser known attractions, like the wall-to-wall flood mural, but it’s probably not the first thing people think of when they think of Paducah,” said Lisa Hammons, director of marketing and communications for the Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Hammons praised the game’s depiction of downtown Paducah, particularly how Gammon recreated some of the dozens of murals along the western Kentucky town’s river.
“These images are all real. You can go to the seawall on the river in Paducah and see the exact seawall that’s depicted in the game,” Hammond said, “but there are no real monsters there.”
The game also includes levels dedicated to Kentucky landmarks located in Frankfort, Grant County, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Louisville, Madisonville, and Munfordville.
Gammon said he designed the game to be simple and accessible for kids of all ages, and he’s even included some Easter eggs in the form of a pair of playable characters for clever Bluegrass State residents.
Hopkinsville recently named itself the “Batter Capital of the World” in 2022, boasting a history of producing wheat-based products at Continental Mills, Seemer Milling Company and Hopkinsville Milling Company.
“Jack is a flapjack pancake kind of character, and he’s from Hopkinsville,” Gammon says, “and then we have Allen, the alien. He’s not just that, he’s basically a tourist around the globe, so he’s an outsider around the world trying to explore these places.”
Gammon said the character of Allen was inspired by the strange history of Hopkinsville, a town in western Kentucky that was the site of an infamous alien encounter in the 1950s.
Team Kentucky worked with advertising agency Coomer and the Kentucky Tourism and Convention Bureau (CVB) to bring the video game to life.
Amy Rogers, president of the Hopkinsville Christian County Convention and Visitors Bureau, helped lead the game’s development project, which took about seven months, and she attributes the game’s quality to the advertising agency Team Kentucky worked with, Coomer.
“We didn’t really know what they were going to bring to the table, and that’s the beauty of what they do and what it’s like to be content creators,” Rogers said.[Kids] Children can see things larger than life, which keeps them interested and helps them learn. [the state]”This will help them learn because it’s like, ‘Hey, Mommy, Daddy, I want to explore this,’ so it’s a win-win in a way,” Rogers said.
Great Big Kentucky Adventure is available for free on your desktop, iOS, or Android device.
This story is republished with permission from WKMS. Read the original.
Zoe Lewis is a freshman at Murray State University from Benton, Kentucky, majoring in Journalism and minoring in Media Production.
