Next steps

Hi! Let's go through the steps that have been taken for the project to progress in the last year.

I've used various inspirations for the story of the game and the overall message that I want to send with it. Every art piece has a message, whether it acknowledges it or not, and every decision should be intentional. In this case, I plan to have a clear idea and implement it in a way that the message is clear, but it doesn't block the view of the rest of the game. If I make a boring game with a strong message, the message won't be received as intended.

- The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s rise to power and the downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett.

- Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil by Hannah Arendt

- The Alt-Right Playbook series by Innuendo Studios (Ian Danskin)

- This war of mine by 11 bit Studios

These references are crucial for the framework and the analysis of the world I plan to implement into the story of the game.

My research question for my thesis (that this game is the main product of) is:

Using a role-playing, story-driven, video game in a fantasy setting, what is a good way to expose fascist rhetoric and the consequences of it gaining power in a country?

A quick synopsis of the game could be:

The war has ended, and Athalea, the former greatest nation, licks its wounds, as different factions fight for its control, tearing the unity of the people apart. In this story-driven RPG you will play as Apolonia, a soldier and master of Aero magic that has to grapple with the new reality of the war ending in defeat and a new internal conflict where pride and fear reign supreme.

There are many things (especially names) that are still tentative, and might change in the near future. But let's meet the main character: Apolonia. We'll talk more about her in the next one.