Introducing! Escape from Ravensbruck!
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Story
Escape from Ravensbrück is about Kala, a girl taken from her parents to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and experimented on by the Nazis. The pain from these experiments puts her in such shock that she falls into a coma. It is here in this subconscious state where the game takes place. Throughout the game Kala will encounter twisted exaggerations of the real world and nightmarish creatures. As well as shades of her friends and family, there to encourage and empower her. She will face her fears, and face her captors. Kala will fight in her dreams, so that she might have a chance at waking up and escaping Ravensbrück in real life.
Gameplay
Zelda 2 and Gargoyle's Quest were great games, they combined the predictable and comfortable linear level with an overhead perspective map allowing the freedom to explore an open world. These two play modes really open things up for me as a designer to add secrets to the game, tell the story on the player's terms, and change it up during gameplay. Linear games like the Ghosts and Goblins series don't offer the player a chance to slow down, enjoy the small details of a game, and learn about the world. And though lacking the connected nature of Metroidvanias, far less backtracking is required when using this overworld map system.
Why this story and setting?
There are many games that tell the combat side of the WWII story, but very few have touched on the horrors of the Holocaust itself. By using Kala's dream world as the main setting I'm avoiding making a game that makes the player constantly sad, but the message, and story is still there. The Holocaust and WWII are probably the most important events of the 20th century, and it's art's job to help us remember tragedies like this. "If the echo of their voices becomes faint, we will perish" -plate from Ravensbrück memorial museum. Games are now a dominant artistic medium, and have started to explore complex themes of the human condition. I want to continue this trend with my own work.
