Back to 1872

"Back to 1872" is a visual novel / RPG that lets the player take the role of a rebellious 13-year-old female student from modern-day True Light Middle School of Hong Kong who travels back in time to explore the rich history of the original True Light Seminary in Guangzhou, China. 

The True Light Seminary was founded in 1872 by American missionary Harriet Noyes of the American Presbyterian Church. During that time, society strongly favored boys over girls, so a lot of girls ended up discouraged from going to school. Therefore China's first girls' school was founded to promote education and rights for female students. 

Eventually, True Light spread in the Canton area, and currently, seven schools bear the True Light name. Till today, the schools still have a class dedicated to educating students about the school's history and female role in society. However, many students nowadays feel that the class is boring and irrelevant. 

Therefore, this game was to let students experience what it's like to live during that period to hopefully inspire them to appreciate the school's history more.

The game was developed by 3 female students (Pearl, Pisces, and Ashley) from True Light Middle School of Hong Kong with the technical support of teacher Billy. This is their first attempt at game development after taking a STEM course after school.  The game involved a lot of historical research, as well as gathering recordings from various teachers and students to make the game more realistic. The artwork was all hand-drawn by a student artist who refused to use AI-generated graphics. 

The game is currently still in the prototyping phase with some of the concept art shown below. The demo only has some of the planned levels and stories implemented. The game is currently only available in Cantonese Chinese.

Credits

Story	Peral, Pisces
Graphics	Peral, Ashley
Tech Support	Billy