BUV First-Year Students Develop a Board Game Inspired by Vietnamese Culture
Having only just begun their university journey, a group of first-year students from the Game Innovation programme at the British University Vietnam (BUV) are already contributing to the development of a board game based on Phục Ma Ngự Sử, working alongside the LacBird team. The project has recently received start-up incubation funding from the Saigon Innovation Hub (SiHUB), marking an exciting step towards turning a creative idea into a tangible product.
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Gaining Hands-on Experience Before University Begins
Phục Ma Ngự Sử is a video game inspired by Vietnamese history, beliefs and folklore, set during the Ly Dynasty. It immerses players in a fictional world where they uncover stories of supernatural forces. Building on the original video game, the project is now being adapted into a board game, offering players a new way to engage with its world and narrative.
Notably, all 10 members of the project team are first-year Game Innovation students who have only recently started university. Their involvement in product development began during their Pathway studies, even before they officially commenced their degree programme. The project has also become the first digital cultural product to receive incubation support from SiHUB.
The students with a prototype of the boardgame
Trần Phương Thảo, representing the student team, shared: “All of us are still quite new to university life, as well as to working in a professional environment. We were genuinely surprised and excited to see a project we had joined during our Pathway studies gradually turning into a real product. Throughout the process, we have received invaluable guidance from experienced professionals, lecturers and mentors, learning so much about the practical aspects of board game design even before officially starting our degree.”
Learning Through Practice, Growing Through Real-world Projects
At BUV, hands-on experience is an integral part of the university's approach to education. For the Game Innovation programme, this means giving students opportunities to engage with real game development challenges, collaborate with different team members and understand how creative ideas evolve into products designed for players.
Despite having only recently graduated from high school, the students have already taken on distinct responsibilities across the essential roles involved in developing a complete board game, from project management and gameplay design to illustration and graphic design. Beyond their classes, they actively dedicate time to team meetings, brainstorming, designing and playtesting the product, gaining first-hand experience of working together much like a professional game studio.
To create designs that are both visually compelling and historically authentic, Lê Minh Phương, the team's illustrator, has taken the initiative to research historical costumes and artefacts through museum resources, academic publications and other references, rather than relying solely on the original video game's designs. Phương shared that one of her key goals in creating the illustrations is to capture the essence of Vietnamese culture, bringing the historical values and national identity carefully preserved by generations of researchers into every detail of the project.
Lê Minh Phương, first-year Game Innovation student, illustrating for Phục Ma Ngự Sử
This experience demonstrates how students can begin exploring their future careers and contributing to real-world products from the very start of their university journey, supported by the university and industry professionals.
The official version of the Phục Ma Ngự Sử board game is expected to launch in November 2026, with start-up incubation support from SiHUB. Watch the VTV4 feature on the project and its exploration of Vietnamese culture through gaming here.
