Yurii-Ihor Syrotynskyi, a third-year student of Lviv Polytechnic National University, is a developer of computer and mobile games based on the facts from the history of Ukraine, in particular Halychyna. The guy together with colleagues has already developed three educational games about the history of Ukraine. The release of the fourth video game is planned. The student told us how video games help to learn something interesting.
«Why did I choose the historical theme? Because this topic is quite painful for us. My mother likes to say, and I also think so, that the current Ukrainian problem is an inferiority complex. I notice many Ukrainians and, frankly saying myself, have gaps in the history of Ukraine. Everyone knows about Kniazha Doba (Princely era), about Volodymyr the Great, Yaroslav the Wise, and then we have a gap of several centuries until the emergence of the Cossacks. And what happened in the meantime, it is difficult for Ukrainians to remember and tell. That’s why one of our games is about King Danylo, to remind us that we also had our kings, coats of arms ... It is necessary to inscribe the Ukrainian lands of that time into the European paradigm of those times, because we had our own unique country», says Yurii.
The student believes that in order to make the history more interesting, it is necessary to make the characters real, to make them more alive and understandable, so that today’s youth could look up to them in certain aspects and thus become more patriotic.
«Our first game is about victorious feats: from the campaign to Constantinople to the battles for the Donetsk airport. The second game is about the elite, about little-known but significant names of Ukrainians, who you will not find in history textbooks. The game allows you to get to know their biographies and better understand the difficult history of Ukraine. For example, I remember the most Nil Khasevych and Mykhailo Symchych, both activists of the OUN and UPA. They both helped Ukraine in their own way and tried to achieve the main thing – to create an independent Ukraine», said the student.
The games were developed with the participation of consultants – experts in the history of Ukraine, namely historians Ivan Khoma and Petro Kostiuk.
You can play patriotic games on the website Osvitni kapsuly.
You can watch the interview with Yurii-Ihor Syrotynskyi in the program Infoden on 5 Lviv Channel.
