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Lots of war games want you to worry about spare grenades and ammunition. Not many ask you to consider food, bandages, or alcohol. That's the premise of This War of Mine: no objective markers, no glorified slaying -- you're just normal people trying to survive a war.
Before development began, the CEO of developer 11 Bit Studios read, "One Year in Hell," a powerful article about one civilian's harrowing survival in a Bosnian warzone. The author stressed the importance of weapons, medicine, hygiene, and strength in numbers. Death became commonplace, by bullets, hunger, and diarrhea.
"We all wanted to make a game about it," said Pawel Miechowski, Senior Writer at 11 Bit. "It was a common decision, and [the article] still drives us."
A game about starvation, death, and the erosion of human kindness might not sound fun, and indeed, the end result may not be, but Miechowski doesn't mind. During our talk, he repeatedly points to 2013's indie hit Papers, Please as example of what games can accomplish -- of the human experiences they can speak to in ways a non-interactive medium can't. Why shouldn't games tackle more diverse subject matter?
This War of Mine begins in a war-torn shelter. Miechowski explains that there are several possible dwellings, and the items you'll find in them are randomized. Your starting group of civilians is also unplanned; their genders, skills, and other traits are not under your control. Your life of shelter is lived one day at a time. Or, rather, you leave to scavenge when the sun sets. During they day you're too easy a target for snipers.
Find some wood and nails and you can make a bed frame. Collecting rainwater is also a vital task. We were short on supplies, so during my brief demo, we sent our most skilled scavenger out to a nearby building under the cover of night. We located only a few basic amenities before we found a woman. She told us to leave, and before we could do much else, she said she was getting help and left. Not wanting to call her bluff, we returned home immediately.
11 Bit didn't arbitrarily make decisions about the player can and cannot do. They studied accounts from Syria, Yugoslavia, and Sarajevo -- terrible moments of conflict, loss, and survival. The developers are also working with an American soldier who lived through the battles in Fallujah. He saw, firsthand, war's direct causation of human suffering.
Wars are often the result of government motivations, but 11 Bit made it exceedingly clear that This War of Mine doesn't explore a political angle.
"We don' want to talk about it," Miechowski said. It's about civilians as they see war. It could happen, and it's terrible... I don't want to sell a moral thesis."
Before development began, the CEO of developer 11 Bit Studios read, "One Year in Hell," a powerful article about one civilian's harrowing survival in a Bosnian warzone. The author stressed the importance of weapons, medicine, hygiene, and strength in numbers. Death became commonplace, by bullets, hunger, and diarrhea.
"We all wanted to make a game about it," said Pawel Miechowski, Senior Writer at 11 Bit. "It was a common decision, and [the article] still drives us."
A game about starvation, death, and the erosion of human kindness might not sound fun, and indeed, the end result may not be, but Miechowski doesn't mind. During our talk, he repeatedly points to 2013's indie hit Papers, Please as example of what games can accomplish -- of the human experiences they can speak to in ways a non-interactive medium can't. Why shouldn't games tackle more diverse subject matter?
This War of Mine begins in a war-torn shelter. Miechowski explains that there are several possible dwellings, and the items you'll find in them are randomized. Your starting group of civilians is also unplanned; their genders, skills, and other traits are not under your control. Your life of shelter is lived one day at a time. Or, rather, you leave to scavenge when the sun sets. During they day you're too easy a target for snipers.
Find some wood and nails and you can make a bed frame. Collecting rainwater is also a vital task. We were short on supplies, so during my brief demo, we sent our most skilled scavenger out to a nearby building under the cover of night. We located only a few basic amenities before we found a woman. She told us to leave, and before we could do much else, she said she was getting help and left. Not wanting to call her bluff, we returned home immediately.
11 Bit didn't arbitrarily make decisions about the player can and cannot do. They studied accounts from Syria, Yugoslavia, and Sarajevo -- terrible moments of conflict, loss, and survival. The developers are also working with an American soldier who lived through the battles in Fallujah. He saw, firsthand, war's direct causation of human suffering.
Wars are often the result of government motivations, but 11 Bit made it exceedingly clear that This War of Mine doesn't explore a political angle.
"We don' want to talk about it," Miechowski said. It's about civilians as they see war. It could happen, and it's terrible... I don't want to sell a moral thesis."
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