Imagine opening up the Wikipedia page of a famous FMCG product such as Colgate, and in six hyperlink clicks reaching the page for Io, the innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. This was one among the many exercises that greeted participants in the video game writing workshop at Manorama Hortus.
Kochi saw game creators and storytellers alike flocking this weekend to Manorama Hortus, where Studio Oleomingus is hosting a two-day Video Game Writing Workshop. Led by founder Dhruv Jani, the sessions treat video games as interactive fiction, a fresh twist on literature where players shape tales through choices, blending text, images, and decisions to probe power, history, and identity.
"No coding skills needed" was the promise, and day one of the session delivered that. One of the highlights was this "wiki race"—an exercise in gamification and storytelling using something as simple as Wikipedia.
From the wiki race example, Dhruv moved to the idea of storytelling as constructing simulations and then erasing extraneous details. This "erasure" was important, he stressed. He unpacked erasure as a creative force in storytelling—omitting details to frame realities.
During the session, he encouraged participants to use erasure in storytelling as a powerful tool to weave creative fiction. He stressed how a good fiction hinged on "deeply coping with your capacity to lie" and "bending systems to your interpretations".
During the session, tools like Twine and Everest Pipkin Soft Corruptor were also introduced to the participants.
Dhruv, in conversation with THE WEEK shortly after the session, called the turnout in Kochi remarkable for this "esoteric little project", highlighting how games viewed through interactive fiction's lens sparked real interest.
Creative erasure vs AI erasure
He, however, contrasted that with how AI large language models recreate icons such as the Taj Mahal's tourist facade from biased image floods, ignoring the full complex.
This "systemic erasure" muddies what's real amid rising simulations, where games uniquely comment on blurred lines between images, history, and material worlds, he stated.
Dhruv stressed games let creators author erasures deliberately, demanding accountability from those who wipe out histories or ways of life. He sees erasure not just as loss but invention, turning data clouds into meaningful narratives by choosing what to spotlight.
Amid AI's unchecked rise, which violently amalgamates private stories without consent and guzzles forests' worth of power in pixels, games offer resistance by mapping these hidden processes. The founder of Studio Oleomingus said he finds AI's tech fascinating—a Markov chain evolution—but slams its hasty, irresponsible rollout, urging regulation.
"The way we [humans] are using them [AI LLM models] now to do deeply irresponsible things because the tools are being forced upon us with a great deal of rapidity is absurd, and should definitely be regulated if possible," he stressed.
Studio Oleomingus, based in Chala (Vapi), in the Union Territory of Daman & Diu, crafts postcolonial games like the Somewhere series. The 2025 edition of Manorama Hortus, one of Kerala's renowned art and literature festivals, is being hosted in Kochi from November 27 to 30 at Subhash Bose Park and surrounding venues.