Hellink is a video game designed to teach information literacy while remaining true to the independent game scene values of high gameplay and narrative quality. It was developed in 2016 in the Sorbonne University by a team of video games professionals from the traditional game industry.

2. Basic information
• Platform: PC (+ tablet/smartphone)
• Development: Unity
• Number of players: 1
• Genre: Reflexion
• Target : Bachelor students at
Sorbonne Universités

3. Hellink: the project
• What? An educational game
developed for Sorbonne Universités.
• Why? To raise awareness of
information literacy among students:
researching, criticising, exploiting
and quoting reliable sources.
• How? The game’s structure is an
alternation between narrative
phases and gameplay phases.

4. A « Serious game »?
• This game is… a game: it aims for
coherence between a strong
and original narrative, a unique
gameplay, and carefully
balanced teaching notions. Its
quality standards are those of the
indie game scene.
• Target audience: bachelor
students. It can be used beyond
the bachelor’s degree to review
the basics of this domain.

5. Hellink – Educational goals
• Define a research subject: Define the required
level of your publication, how to structure your
research.
• Reliability: Know the questions to ask in order to
keep a critical eye on any piece of information.
• Quote one’s sources: Avoid plagiarism and make
your publication usable by others.
• Global goal: Not giving a thorough training, but
raising awareness about those notions.
• The game makes those notions appealing and
makes the player practice them in an
entertaining way through its gameplay.

6. Hellink – Training in the humanities
Beyond the use of this analytical eye in the sole
scientific context, the game aims for formation to the
digital humanities and popular education:
• Practicing one’s critical sense beyond the scientific
context, but also in the player’s everyday life and their
relationship with society.
• Understanding the need for precise and complete
information in our complex period of time to go beyond
appearances and understand our society’s mechanics.
• Showing fictional situations in a sci-fi universe
echoing our reality, to invite players to question it.

7. Gameplay: Dialogue
• 3 gameplay phases:
• 1/3 : Dialogues for story development. Fixed screen, characters
talking in the foreground.

8. Gameplay: Keywords
• 2/3 : Focus on defining the subject and understanding research tools:
you must find several keywords linked to a subject and assess their
complexity level by browsing a corpus of text as quickly as possible.

9. Gameplay: Source reliability
• 3/3 : Inspired by Papers, Please. Practicing critical analysis on an
information source. The opponent presents a false assertion and
several sources to back it up. You must find the errors in the sources
and link them with the publication rules they break.

10. General tone and artistic direction
• One main inspiration: Ace Attorney !
 Emphasis on elaborated storytelling served
by the gameplay.
 Omnipresent humour to lighten the mood
and make the game immediately
attractive.
 Strong and more serious emotion moments
at key plot points.
 Exaggerated and off the wall situations in a
manga/cartoon spirit.
Ace Attorney, Capom Co., Ltd.

11. The game’s world
• Atmosphere: Science-fiction
(Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix…)
• Place/Time: Paris, 2044.
Université Pierre et Marie Curie.
• Protagonist: A female expert in
cybercriminality and data security.
• Pitch: An investigation in the
university about a large-scale
hacking, leading to a murder and
the revelation of a worldwide plot.
Ghost in the Shell, Production I.G

12. Characters: Hero, Sidekick, Mentor

13. Characters: Hacktivist, Pr. Beaver,
Winter Salesman

14. Characters: Augustin Barruel,
Pr. Rabbasch, Criminologist

15. Setting: The Server Room

16. Setting: The Atrium

17. Setting: The Mentor’s office

18. Setting: The Basement

19. Setting: The Jardin des Plantes

20. Setting: The Bachelor Library

21. Setting: The Last Floor

22. The team
• Myriam Gorsse : Head of Information Skills Training in the
University Pierre et Marie Curie, Executive producer on Hellink.
• A video game professional team:
• Thomas Planques : Creative director, producer, 10 years
of experience in the video game field.
• 2 game designers
• 1 assistant producer
• 1 environment artist, 1 character designer, 1 UI artist
• 1 developer
• 1 sound designer/composer
• 1 dialogue writer et 1 script doctor

23. Summary
• A game in a sci-fi universe with a humorous
tone, inspired by Ace Attorney, teaching
information research and critical analysis.
• An alliance between the best aspects of
entertainment and teaching!
• Contacts :
• Myriam Gorsse – Executive producer
myriam.gorsse@upmc.fr
• Thomas Planques – Creative director
thomas.planques@gmail.com