I was raised in a region of Britain with a long tradition of commercial bobbin lacemaking. In her spare time my mother made intricate lace on a domed pillow fringed with beaded bobbins and festooned with brass pins, and in his, my father turned fancy wooden bobbins on a small lathe. Happily, thanks to the educational efforts of craftswomen* the world over, some of whom pass on their skills via classes, books, or YouTube videos, there’s little danger the art of bobbin lacemaking will ever vanish completely. However, if it, and similarly fascinating traditional handicrafts, are ever to enjoy anything resembling a renaissance, game developers need to recognise their potential as relaxing digital pursuits.
* Most bobbin lacemakers seem to be women
If I ever get around to writing Part 4 of my series on Creative Europe’s seriously flawed game development grants, it will take the form of a list of suggestions. As one half of CE’s declared raison d’être is to “safeguard, develop and promote European cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage” one of those suggestions will be that the organisation stops funding titles with no discernible relationship to European culture or history, and focuses instead on encouraging games like The Darkest Files, Velvet 89, Comrades and Barons: Gates of Freedom, and (working title) Lacemaking Simulator 2024.
LS2024 is just a diaphanous figment of my imagination at present, but if something resembling it ever reached the market, assuming the execution was competent, I’m sure there’d be people who’d appreciate the mindfulness it encouraged and the skills it taught.
Compared to not-disimilar crafts such as cross-stitch and embroidery – which are, in a small way, already represented and reproduced in video gaming – bobbin lacemaking is more physical and musical. Any lacemaking sim that failed to convey the characteristic click and clatter of worked bobbins would be a sorry thing indeed, and today there’s no reason why a digital treatment couldn’t replicate the important role gravity* plays in the pastime too.
* The bobbins in bobbin lacemaking have three functions. They store the thread used to make the piece, their weight provides essential tension, and their design allows lacemakers to manipulate thread without touching and, potentially, sullying it.
Of course the really special thing about a lacemaking sim is that it could teach a new generation of lacemakers cheaply and elegantly. Whenever a ‘Lacemaker Simulator 2024’ user became confused, that confusion would be banished with a dab of the ‘toggle text hints’ or ‘show me what to do next’ key.
There are, I reckon, myriad traditional crafts that are well suited to, and would benefit from, imaginative digitilisation. Ironically, if we do ever see a flurry of handicraft sims, thanks to Creative Europe’s utterly daft obsession with narrative, none of them are likely to display a “Co-funded by the European Union” message while they load.
Looms are, of course, the predecessors to modern computers. You’d think something could be down with that.
Somewhat vaguely related, I was on a tour of the Queen Mary earlier this month. While down in the engine room it really hit home just how many fascinating historic skill sets will likely go extinct someday.
Even if those with the skills to maintain a 1930s-era ocean liner could somehow manage to pass on their knowledge before passing on themselves, how could anyone even put it into practice?
“Steam ship boiler room simulator” just might be a bit too niche unfortunately.