Kazakh school students have designed
a board game based on ancient myths. The central characters include figures
from Kazakh folk tales such as Bir kozdi dau, Zhelayak, Tausogar, Sakkulak,
Tazsha bala and others. Their graphic images were carved from wood. Before
embarking on the game’s development, the creators conducted a survey. The
results revealed that students were most interested in the mythology genre. The
development of the game in two versions took a year. The first version features
six characters, while the other includes eight.
“We faced lots of challenges while creating the
board game about Kazakh myths. For instance, the Canva program that was
used in developing the design, unfortunately, does not include Kazakh words. Thus,
we had to add words manually and use a special computer program to integrate them
into the game’s design,” said Senim Duissenova, 11th grade student.
The students obtained and patented a copyright
for their table game. First, they plan to spread it in the Abai region
and subsequently expand its availability nationwide. The goal of developers is
to use the game to arouse interest in Kazakh folk tales in the younger
generation.
“After obtaining the copyright, we published
information about our game on various websites. Since then, we’ve been
receiving requests to buy our product. People have been inquiring where it will
be available for purchase. Now, we intend to refine the game and bring it to
the market,” said Akbota Zhaisanbayeva, teacher of Kazakh language and literature.
