King Pangnapa and the Map of the Missing Library Books

Artist Statement:  This is an art piece that happens to be a video game based on my experiences and feelings as a librarian. It is intended to raise awareness about some of the issues that face our field. This is meant to be an artistic commentary on what it means to be a librarian since, as an artist, I feel powerless about this rise of book challenges and the budget cuts except to make a video game about it to raise awareness so the right people can come help us out.  The game is about you, the player, experiencing what it means to be a librarian through a 3D Platformer. The project does not reflect any employer at all, and is simply my own personal work of art. 

You are the King Pangnapa, the immortal penguin King of All Librarians for the last 6,000 years, and Mr. Grumpypants, the King of Capitalism, has stolen books he wanted to be banned from the library and has scattered them across the domains because they gave an unfair advantage to his game! Punished by the library gods for neglecting the stacks, King Pangnapa is on a quest to search the domains and find as many books as possible in order to return home to the Domain of Librarians. However, Mr. Grumpypants has set obstacles and turrets all over the place to make your life difficult because he can afford to.  Across the domains you will meet many friends who will talk to King Pangnapa. Eat tacos to restore your health! Find the books, explore all the domains, and remind Mr. Grumpypants that knowledge is power! 

This is for my Project-based Thesis for Lindenwood University in requirements of the MA in Game Design. 

-This game is best played with a controller!

Thank you for playing!

King Pangnapa and his adventures will continue in THE MASTER OF ALL LIBRARIANS

All assets featured were bought from the Unreal Marketplace ;)

• Cover art done by Elinz 
• All the kawaii anime animals were modeled by SURIYUN, please check out Cute Penguins and Cute Zoo
• Mr. Grumpypants, modeled by GiM in Animalia Tiger
• This game uses the blueprints, VFX and structures from  TeaFX's Easy 3D Platformer Kit
• Bookshelves and Books from Nimikko
• Taco modeled by ithappy in Food 1 pack
• Skyboxes AI generated by Blockade Labs

All music is by Nine Inch Nails, and is 100% intentional for this project as NiN has been every day for this librarian's life  (have mercy on me, Trent Reznor!)

• Into the Void
• Memorabilia
• All the Pigs, All Lined Up
• March of the Pigs

In the fictional world of the video game in the Domain of Humanity, books have been censored to maintain plutocracy disguised as "moral concern" in books. It is to maintain power structures created so those already rich can maintain their wealth and not have to compete at all, because of Mr. Grumpypants, the King of Money. He oversees who gets to “win” his game and, throughout all of the domains, has had books he wanted banned removed. 

He decides to ban books because they give humans an unfair advantage in winning his game- "Capitalism". The rule of the game is this- the more capital you have, the more value your life has worth- this determines what services such as food, water, shelter you get. 

 He “hates” public libraries because they didn’t decide to play his game or sell their services; instead, they offered them for free to the general public for anyone who came through their doors without expecting a profit.  He wants to ban books because they make his game create peace within humans, and uses any means necessary to keep humans divided through the creation of the game of "Capitalism" he has created because he's in charge of the Domain of Money.  Thus, King Pangnapa is forced to collect all the books Mr. Grumpypants has stolen. 

Nine Inch Nails has been King Pangnapa's coping mechanism as music to listen to throughout this adventure. The game begins with Into the Void, and alludes to all the angst King Pangnapa has felt having to be on the battlefield, saving the books and memes before humans permanently destroy them. After the first level, you, the player, get a glimpse of King Pangnapa’s origin as he collects all the books set to Memorabilia. This was selected because it reflects his intimate relationship with his lover. Also, the lyrics I collect; I reject just scream collection development and weeding. 

From there, you are transported to New York City in the Domain of Humanity to meet with Mr. Grumpypants. The song contains King Pangnapa's fury, rage, and desire for peace for librarians. If humans are all pigs to be exploited in the eyes of Mr. Grumpypants, then King Pangnapa will have all the pigs all lined up for him in the story of my video game. Through this last level, it turns out all the humans have turned into animals, many pigs. You encounter Gloria, the librarian turned game designer lioness who found Biblio the Great Library Genie and uses her wish for a peaceful resolution to all these book challenges happening. This leads to all the humans becoming animals in the final level.  

In the sequel, March of the Pigs in the initial gameplay trailer is a message, that in his competition for librarians the promise of a billion dollars is something even a book banner would want, because of the plutocracy Mr. Grumpypants has allowed to happen, because of his hatred for humanity. Humans poached his family and almost got him, but he was saved by King Pangnapa and became in charge of the Domain of Money. The game he has forced The Domain of Humanity to play is because it is part of his job to keep humans divided as decided by the "Gods".  Librarians in the Domain of Humanity are considered "bottom-rung", so a competition where you earn a billion dollars a year (aka easily win Mr. Grumpypant's competition of the more money you have, the more value your life is) is because nobody believes "you can earn that much money reading so many books!" or "all I have to do is shelve?!"

For the various domains you explore in the world set to the Nine Inch Nails music deal with the various feelings/experiences King Pangnapa has felt.  The domains themselves are open to everyone but members of the Domain of Humanity (aka, regular humans on Planet Earth). The Domains are similar to the worlds in Kingdom Hearts, instead they are based on ideas or concepts and "memes" humanity has invented (hence why they can't go visit) each one has a ruler in charge of it.  So a Domain of Librarians- King Pangnapa, Domain of Money- Mr. Grumpypants... there's a ruler of a Domain of Cardigans, Domain of Penguins, Domain of Basic... etc. 

For this for my first serious game in Unreal Engine 5... I the creator decided a 3D Platformer where you collect books "stolen" would be best because in real life some patrons do that... they think "of if they won't ban them then if I steal/check it out, then no one else can have them!" so that's the premise of King Pangnapa going all over the place collecting them after Mr. Grumpypants does exactly that.  That is what the player is doing as King Pangnapa in this videogame, as  he's banished by the Library Gods because Mr.Grumpypants banned so many books across all the domains!

King Pangnapa has had a hard life, for 6,000 he has silently collected humanity's memes before they themselves destroyed it by accident, war, or whatever nonsense... yet he still loves humans. 6,000 years ago his lover, Amy,  a librarian, accidentally died in a revenge quest against someone that hurt her, so he was banished from the Domain of Penguins! (The second level of this video game!) Expecting his end, he decides to open up one of her books, and out of it comes a great mystical blue genie known as Biblio the Great the Library Genie! By then though, the "Library Gods" explain that Amy the Penguin Librarian was to be in charge of the Domain of Librarians, as the "Queen",  Pangnapa...then decides to tell Biblio he wishes to become the King of all Librarians in her place, as his way of atoning for what happened. 

From there he was sent 6,000 years into the future into the 21st century Bronx, to learn the ways of librarianship there and learn what he needs to archive.  However, he cannot be a penguin in the Domain of Humanity, so he is in disguise as a human for once. After learning the ways, he is sent back to his original time of 6,000 years ago where he witnesses Ancient Egypt, China, Greece... there's a lot of hidden history he has collected over the years before humans or nature have destroyed them whether through war, ignorance, natural disasters, etc... sometimes being upfront in it has taken its toll on King Pangnapa, but he knows its his job as the King of all Librarians to collect the memes, and to also be there for all his librarians too. However, he cannot interact directly with humans as he can only collect journals, books, art, etc. before they get destroyed. 

6,000 of overseeing the Domain of Humanity in terms of anything "librarian" related has taken his toll on King Pangnapa who now is banished from his home of the Domain of Librarians, a magnificent castle . Mr. Grumpypants relishes in humans destroying each other, so he has decided certain books if humans read them, would create peace, so he decides to ban them and uses his power of being in charge of the Domain of Money, to use money, whether paying or promising people money if they ban books, or by influencing others to ban them. 

This is what influences King Pangnapa to host the Master of all Librarians, a competition for librarians where the winner becomes a billionaire, and gets to be in charge of the Domain of Librarians. They get to live in his magestic library castle, which holds secret records nobody knows about like "the truth about Atlantis", or sacred various, things most humans don't know but of course some humans do know and he was there for that- so he has artifacts throughout 6,000 years of history in his library castle. 

So far this is a live action concept made with Canva... otherwise enjoy the cuteness of the 3D platformer. The motif of this RPG will explore money. In a world where your only value is how much you are worth, what makes you human?

Thank you to my chair and committee members!

• Michael Fetters
• Ben Fulcher
• Jeremiah Ratican

Thank you to all my fellow librarians during these difficult times...

With love, King Pangnapa

"The pigs have won tonight. "