We had an exquisite time trying out the Indie Showcase finalists at Digital Dragons 2023, exploring so many alternative video games from an enormous vary of genres and kinds. However one recreation stood out to us on the convention flooring – the distinctive, text-based socially engaged RPG often known as We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe.
Act Zero is an indie video games studio based mostly in Warsaw, Poland, and Ticket to Europe is the staff’s first mission collectively. It tells the story of a wannabe author (modeled intently after Act Zero’s CEO Jędrzej Napiecek) who travels to North Africa to analysis their ebook about refugees that they hope will “change the world,” solely to find simply how little they perceive in regards to the lives of individuals fleeing their houses.
We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe is at present out on Steam, and the dev staff hopes to deliver it to cellular units and the Swap quickly. We hope as many individuals as potential can play it, as this recreation tackles such an vital situation and brings refugees’ tales into the highlight when they’re so typically glossed over in favor of tragic headlines.
Napiecek sat down with us at Digital Dragons to offer us some extra perception into his determination to discovered Act Zero and inform this specific story, particularly coming from a screenwriting background. “I do know nothing about making video games, however I wished to be taught,” he mentioned. “I began as a QA tester on The Witcher 3, and that was the place the place I met Maciej Stańczyk.” Stańczyk is Act Zero’s CTO and co-founder.
Not solely did Napiecek wish to be taught to make video games, however he wished to make one thing impactful. Stańczyk shares his imaginative and prescient, in order that they began working collectively on the sport that might grow to be Ticket to Europe. It was round this time that Napiecek began to see tales within the information about individuals drowning within the Mediterranean Sea attempting to achieve Europe from Africa.
“I used to be attempting to know what your thoughts state needs to be that you just’re standing on this pretty seashore of North Africa, a spot the place lots of people come for a trip, to come back to the conclusion that getting on this previous boat and attempting to cross the ocean is the higher thought than staying.” Ticket to Europe’s first model, a product of Napiecek’s early analysis into the refugee disaster, started as a useful resource administration simulator the place you play as somebody attempting to achieve Europe by boat.
“We made a prototype of [the resource management sim] and we went with this prototype to the Moria refugee camp.” He mentioned that it was clear nearly instantly that the sport wanted to drastically change route. Napiecek even mentioned that his unique thought was a “false and naive assumption” of the lives of refugees based mostly on what he had researched and the narratives we’re fed by mainstream media.
“On this sail by the ocean, the general public don’t take into consideration buying and selling sources! I spotted that it was very exhausting for me to jot down credible dialogues and create credible characters with the refugee as a protagonist as a result of irrespective of what number of books I might learn in regards to the topic or what number of interviews I’ll conduct with them, I’ll by no means be capable of absolutely perceive what it’s prefer to flee from a warzone nation or lose your loved ones in a bombing. Who am I to talk on their behalf? I’m just a few man from Poland who learn some books.”
Napiecek realized that he had much more to say on the connection journalists and researchers type with refugees and the “confrontation of your theoretical information and your expectations with the truth and the true particular person.” Writing the sport from this angle additionally permits extra of his viewers to confront their present information, as nearly all of gamers’ lives are extra much like his than they’re to the lives of refugees in Moria or elsewhere.
“I assumed that it might be a extra sincere technique to inform this story,” Napiecek mentioned. “Ultimately, this can be a recreation that’s a bit bit about my failure in attempting to make a recreation, however in the long run I made this recreation about how exhausting it’s to make some sorts of artwork about delicate topics.”
Ticket to Europe is particularly a product of the fashionable Polish video games business. Not solely did Napiecek and his enterprise accomplice be taught the commerce from CD Projekt Pink, one among Poland’s largest AAA studios, however one other native firm gave him the arrogance to inform a significant story with a online game. “I used to be freshly graduated from movie faculty, from the screenwriting division, and this was additionally when the sport This Warfare of Mine by 11Bit Studios was launched. It’s impressed me lots and given me hope that video games have matured sufficient to battle with significant, critical matters.”
Not like This Warfare of Mine, Ticket to Europe tries to focus rather less on the unfavorable points of refugee life, whereas additionally remaining true to the expertise of everybody the staff interviewed. All the recreation’s illustrations are performed in a comic book ebook model with vibrant colours and daring traces, which is one other method of difficult the participant’s assumptions in regards to the refugee expertise.
“After I went to the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, I additionally anticipated that it might be a really exhausting expertise for me emotionally,” Napiecek mentioned. “However to be sincere, it was tremendous optimistic. I didn’t count on that these individuals could be so hungry for all times. After all, everybody there had some trauma, however it was like they have been hungry for regular small discuss conversations, to make jokes and simply stay.”
As Ticket to Europe is a socially engaged mission, 5% of the sport’s earnings are going to charity. The primary group is the Hope Mission, a charity established in 2015 that helps refugees arriving in Lesbos from Turkey. Supporting the Hope Mission was a simple alternative for Napiecek as they hosted him and his staff on the Moria refugee camp whereas they have been conducting their analysis.
“I do know them – they’re superb individuals and I noticed how a lot work they’re doing and what number of obstacles are in the best way. It’s not some nameless group the place I do know nothing greater than what’s written on their web site. They helped me sooner or later. I want to assist them again.”
Since our dialogue with Napiecek, Act Zero has chosen its second humanitarian accomplice, the Polish charity Ocalenie Basis. Lots of Ticket to Europe’s supporters named this group when the builders requested for options, and its mission matches the message of the sport.
On the sport’s Steam web page, the studio mentioned, “The ‘Ocalenie’ Basis has been proving for years with its steadfast angle and by saving human lives on the Polish-Belarusian border that they deserve all help. We now have met these individuals personally and may vouch for his or her credibility. They’re true heroes and we’re positive they may put this help to good use. We hope that this may assist them in fulfilling their mission not less than a bit.”
We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe is a small recreation making large waves within the socially engaged gaming sphere and the true world, altering minds in regards to the refugee disaster, who’s certified to inform which tales, and the facility of video games to work for good. We will’t watch for this recreation to make its technique to Swap and cellular, irrespective of how lengthy it takes.
Should you’re in search of extra text-based adventures, try our checklist of the perfect visible novel video games. We’ve additionally received some nice options for emotional, social change-driven video games in our checklist of video games like Life is Unusual.