Leaving Traces In Life: Historical Landscapes In The Whimsical Kynseed

The adventure of a lifetime is calling you! In this week’s blog, we are jumping into Kynseed, a Life Sim game where you dictate your own future and history. But the developers left behind hints of older cultures for you to find. Let’s figure out how the studio took inspiration from the Celts to make their game feel real!

In my past blogs, I’ve discussed a lot of epic adventure games, so perhaps it is time we turn to a different type of adventure for this blog: that of the life simulator. And there is one game that I have in mind particularly, named Kynseed (2022).

A team of ex-Lionhead employees, who now work under their own name, PixelCount Studios, created the whimsy and cutesy Life Sim Sandbox RPG. For those who are familiar with Lionhead’s work, such as Fable, Kynseed might give off a similar feel. But don’t let this mislead you. It is most definitely not a case of copy and paste! The unique and retroesque art style is vaguely nostalgic, and the music only adds to the fantasy vibe.

But that was not the aim of PixelCount Studios, though. They didn’t want to create a “fantasy” game. In fact, they wanted to, and did, create a game that lets the player experience what it would be like to realistically live in a whimsical and Fae-filled world.

To achieve this, they filled the Life Sim with plenty of realistic gameplay elements. Like our world, money drives Kynseed’s economy, and you will need it to achieve anything in the game. So how do you earn money? You start a business, of course. Whether it’s a blacksmithery or an apothecary, there are a bunch of options. If farming or running a business isn’t for you, you can opt for a more adventurous lifestyle where you slay monsters and sell their parts.

Next to the ability to romance characters and marry NPCs, one of Kynseed’s most unique elements is perhaps the fact that your character ages in the game and will eventually die. Is this the end of the game? Heck no! You continue to live on through your children, with the help of the “Kynseed.” So be aware that the character you start with might not be the character you “finish” with.

Not all Fantasy Is Fictional

Do I have your attention? I hope I do, cause Kynseed is a truly wonderful game with plenty of features to keep anyone entertained. But of course, I’m not just writing this blog to hype up the game. There is a point to this. Because, outside of the game being a Life Sim, there are other ways PixelCount Studios made the game feel “realistic.” And the thing I would like to focus on today is the landscape. Or perhaps I should say, the traces that mankind has left in the landscape….

As the player wanders through the realms of Kynseed, they encounter a variety of historical landmarks and landscape features, many of which Celtic history directly inspires. So join me as we leave this world behind for one that is bright and colourful and filled with magic, to explore the landscape of Kynseed!

Who Built That?!

One of the first things players will encounter is something they will not only use a lot in the game, but probably also recognise from the real world.

The Henge Stones in the game form portals that players can use once they obtain the Obscura and the appropriate Glass Lenses. Each Glass Lens will open a different gateway to a different Fae realm (one of them being Tir Na Nog, which draws its inspiration from the Irish-Celtic mythological realm under the same name).

The people from PixelCount Studios aren’t the first to use a circle of stones (in this case, sarsens (vertical) and lintels (horizontal)) as portals to other worlds. Many other books, games, films, and TV shows have also used this element, and it’s easy to understand why. It still baffles and intrigues me how ancient cultures were able to create these large structures and what they used them for. It is truly out of this world.

When implementing the idea into the game, the developers most likely took inspiration from how Stonehenge is today, rather than what it would have looked like when it was complete. Instead of a full circle, Kynseed’s Henge Stones are four separate trilithons (three-stone structures) and loose standing stones in between.

Although ancient people did not use Stonehenge to travel between different lands and realms, like the stones in the game, it did have an incredibly similar function. As we understand it today, Stonehenge was a burial site, a religious site, and it also helped people track astronomical phenomena such as the sun. I could make a case for each of these components, but let me introduce you to the simplest one. Is crossing over from the land of the living to the afterlife not travelling from one realm to the next?

I’m sure you understand where I’m coming from. But I’d like to end this section with one final cheeky little comment. Ancient megalithic structures like Stonehenge, and therefore the stones in the game, remind us of a different time, a different culture, maybe even what life would have been like back then. So are these then not ACTUAL portals of history?

Where Is All Of This Going?

The Celts often used upright inscribed stones for a variety of reasons and functions. People mostly used them as gravemarkers or memorial stones, but there have been cases where they were used as “border” stones. Let me explain that. Sometimes, the Celts used inscribed stones to mark ownership of a piece of land or to claim territory or ancestral rights to it, thereby defining a territory and, by extension, creating a border. In this situation, the “border” is more literal than in that of the gravemarkers, where the border could be seen as the veil between the living and the dead.

Whereas we don’t know exactly what the spiral represents, some have posed the idea that it has to do with seasonal movement (sun, solstice, etc.), we do know what the Triskelion represents.

The Triskelion goes way further than the Celtic world, as many cultures through Classical Antiquity (Greece & Rome) also used it. The religious symbol has a lot of different interpretations, but most have some connection to understanding the world and the universe around us. More specifically, people interpret it as representing: 

1. past, present, and future
2. the present world, the other world, the celestial world
3. the cyclical nature of the seasons, cosmos and time
4. life, death, and rebirth
5. body, soul, and spirit/soul
6. (in Celtic cultures, the number 3 is an important and sacred number)

I think the Triskelion inspired the Map Waystone symbol in both meaning and look, rather than the spiral motif. Although the symbol in the game has an extra “arm,” the interconnectedness of the spirals is obvious. And given the different meanings of the Triskelion, it is too perfect not to have inspired the Map Waystone symbol. Players use the symbol on the stones to unlock different realms, where the Triskelion represents the three different worlds. And the interpretation of past, present, and future/ life, death, and rebirth closely ties in with the unique game mechanic of the player’s character ageing, passing on, and being reborn in their children. It applies to the continuous journey you and your children have throughout the game world, which the Map Waystones encompass.

Little Secrets Hidden In The Leaves

It is safe to say that the developers were (and are) very aware of Celtic history and myth. Not that this was ever really a question, considering they have revealed as much in their “PixelCount Post” (their DevLog), where they talk about Celtic music and such. And the two examples I’ve given in this blog aren’t the only Celtic influences in the game, either. An important part of Kynseed is about the magical Wicker Man, a large wooden “statue” in the shape of a man. Julius Caesar is the one who made the first record of the Celts using a Wicker Man for a ritual. He claimed the Celts used it for human sacrifice, but let’s be honest, that was probably bogus. Nevertheless, the Celts might have genuinely used these wooden men for worship, and the connection between the culture and “statue” is something that modern media still uses regularly.

Other elements include the many different mythological creatures from folklore that the developers added to the game, and much more! Too much to discuss in this blog, in fact. So I’ll leave it at this.

The developers aimed to create something that felt real. To create a game that felt grounded in something. And I think they really nailed it. What better way is there to make something “realistic” than to add historically familiar elements to it? Kynseed is just the right level of historical accuracy, creative interpretation, mystery, and a dash of fantasy to make “life” interesting!