Little Manila: A Digital Recreation

Abstract

Little Manila was once a vibrant Filipino community in Stockton, California, decimated by a freeway construction project that began in the 1960s and took nearly three decades to complete. This paper describes our initial efforts to digitally recreate Lit-tle Manila as it appeared during the mid-twentieth century. Our game-like environment was developed primarily by an inter-disciplinary team of undergraduate students who worked on the project during a five week summer fellowship. The team in-cluded two history majors, two graphic design majors, a computer science major, and a geological science major. The team managed itself using the Scrum methodology for software development, which included daily stand-up meetings that served to enhance communication and facilitate collaboration among team members. The current version of the software allows users to interact with non-player characters (NPCs) and explore many of the buildings near the intersection of El Dorado and Lafa-yette Streets, the center of Little Manila, to learn more about life for Filipino immigrants during the time period of the recrea-tion. At the conclusion of the fellowship a ''Big Reveal'' event was held to demonstrate the software to members of the commu-nity. Nearly 120 people attended the event, with reactions from audience members ranging from tears to cries of recognition.