It's been more than 56 years since miners lived in Blue Heron in McCreary County, Kentucky. But now a group of students are recreating the abandoned coal town.
What started as an assignment to create in interactive environment in a computer science class at Eastern Kentucky University has grown into a game called Mine 18, where characters uncover old mining communities and learn the history of Appalachians in the early 1900s.
"We really wanted to do something in Appalachia because most of us are from this area and it's not something you see a lot in the media, in a positive light, anyway," lead developer Lacey Lansaw said. "It was also really accessible to us. We could go outside and take pictures or get audio or anything. It's just right out the window."
Though the town of Blue Heron was abandoned in the 1950s, it is now within the boundaries of Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and has been partially restored to give visitors an up-close look at what life in the coal town was like.
"We've had people from McCreary County play it an be like, 'I got drunk on that river! I've been there, I've run across that bridge,'" Lansaw said.
The game is narrative-driven and Lansaw says it will focus on personal stories of miners and their families.
"We were thinking about going into the mine wars a bit, having this struggle between your laborers and the business owners and the history behind that and unions, but we also want to tell more personal stories," Lansaw said.
The team from EKU took their game to the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles and received positive feedback from industry professionals. Locals also seem drawn to the game.
"My favorite part is recreating a place that means so much to people," Lansaw said. "The messages that I've gotten have been like 'I'm so excited that you're doing this, I didn't know anyone would be interested in my history or my town.'"
Lansaw said the co-developers are forming a gaming business with Mine 18 as its debut product. However, they don't plan to relocate to any big city tech hub to continue their work.
"The thing about game design is that it is so accessible," Lansaw said. "So we're going to build a company and we want to stay in Appalachia. We want to help people learn about technology and create jobs for anyone who wants to learn."
Mine 18 still needs about a year for further development before it is released for PC. The team will post updates on Twitter @Mine18Game.