What would you do if your family was a few moments of starving and the only thing that stood between you and the last source of food available was a couple of elderly begging you not to take it? What would you do if you have to sacrifice the life of a few to protect the life of an entire city? These are the types of ethical dilemmas tormenting and invoking doubt that you can expect to face when you play games in 11-bit studios, the Polish spirits behind independent favorites that create reflection frostpunk and _This war of the mine.
11 bits are not content to spice up these dilemmas to spicele the gameplay. They do not exist as gadgets to simulate an agency of players, nor to simply advance the story. These questions, those that make you re-evaluate and completely analyze your moral code at each turn, are at the very heart of the games. These questions are at the heart of the story and answer it is the essence of experience.
Although two of their most successful titles, frostpunk and other Mine War, focusing on the themes of morality, war and struggle, these dark motifs were not always at the heart of each game. 11 Bit was created in December 2009 by the former founding members of Metropolis Software, a Polish game development studio since acquired by CD Projekt. Initially a five team, they decided to make their first match, Anomalie: Warzone Earth, with the intention of mixing genres or upset the established genres. Quite on, anomalie did exactly that as the first major tour attack game - a fairly popular riff of the still popular tour defense that flooded application stores in 2011. Since the modest success of the first game The series has expanded with three more favorable installments.
Following the anomalie series, 11 bits borrowed a different way with their artistic follow-up, _This Mine War. Stranding ordinary citizens fighting to survive in a besieged city. You play a small group of civilians, every individual as badly prepared at the atrocities of the war as the next, and you have to make the day and search the night to find supplies to allow you to continue a day more. Every day presents a disturbing new situation with consequences of life or death to which you face.
The differences between the anomalie series and This war of the Mine are immediately obvious and can even seem confusing at first. Anomalie uses a hectic real-time action mixed with an engaging strategy to dive the player in his reversed tower defense gameplay. It's fun, light and full of excitement. On the contrary, when the mother of mine_ is dark and sullen. While anomalie commanded you a shielded military squad in the middle of an extraterrestrial invasion, in the heart of the Mine_, you simply play as people. Not specialists, not soldiers, not even survivors, just random and unprepared people. On the artistic level, the differences are also apparent. The analysis of the illustrations are bright and clear to allow the player a precise view of the battlefield. _This mine war is a 2D lateral scrolling with hand drawn monochrome visuals and a misty vignette that invites the person's imagination, although the characters retain an air of realism because of the digitizations and 3D photographs hard 11 bits. of themselves and people they knew. Keep the work of art faithful to put the player in the skin of true citizens affected by the war. The jump of Anomalie_This Mine war shows a visible maturity gap between the creation of the studio and its current goal as creators.
It was evolution, or perhaps in this case, even a revolution, of our creation philosophy, explains Pawel Miechowski, head of the 11-bit studio partnerships, about the growth of the studio between the two games . At the beginning of the development of _This Mine War, we domestically discussed the maturity of the games and the way players need a more mature approach of games ... it's not just what we want to play But more importantly, that's what we want to create: games with a potential for reflection, with serious topics, more empathy than on simple pleasure. »
This philosophy is undeniably perceptible This Mine war. This is not a game focused on minute pleasure per minute. It's not even supposed to be fun at all, but rather a deep and stimulating entertainment experience. If it seems familiar to games such as _The last of us or Papiers please, it is because they have largely inspired the current motivations of the 11-bit studios.
This is how a new philosophy has been forged: a significant entertainment, continues Miechowski. Games that matter. Games based on an idea, rather than created in a specific genre or for fans of a specific kind. »
Four years after the exit of the present Mine war_, 11 bit revealed the dark manufacturer of survival frostpunk, which has expanded the scale of experimentation of human morality. While This War of Mine concentrated on singles and difficulties they met by trying to survive the war, _frostpunk examined what would happen if the player was confronted with the moral dilemmas of an entire society. In frostpunk, you are responsible for ensuring the success of the last chance of survival of an entire colony in the middle of a volcanic winter. The world has been covered with ruthless ice and snow cover, and you must frequently choose between the company and its individual units in a choose your own adventure meets the classic trolley problem 'install. The work is cold and teeming with blue, white and gray in the color palette. Citizens who approach you have striking water tightened details; Their faces and their tired bodies and their heavy winter clothes revealing the inspiration of the end of the Victorian era.
FROSTPUNK presents you every two minutes of the narrative choices that ask you to make difficult decisions and sign law that impact your company. You can yield to the deplorable pleas of individuals who use yourself if it is not for the best common good, or you can apply your own moral code at all costs to do what you think is right - or not. It is impressive to see how many times the game will make you choose things against your own morality, against what you think is good or bad, in order to maintain the survival of your colony.
Even more tangible examples of these dilemmas are presented in this mine war. The children will knock on your door, imploring your help to save their wounded parent. Are you going to risk one of your rare survivors to help them? Will you refuse, by Paranoia, that all this could be the theatrical staging of an ambush?
One of the most powerful (and comparatively minor moral and ethical dilemmas to which you face is perhaps illustrated in one of the questions previously asked. In _This Mine War, food, medicine, water and other supplies are extremely rare, and every night you need to send one of your survivors to look for these needed products. Sometimes you will drive to abandoned sites and buildings, but most of the time, looting hardware means flying to someone else, whether directly or indirectly. A place you can recover is a quiet and well-preserved suburban house filled with useful food and provisions that are usually much more difficult to find on other sites of the game. However, the house is occupied by a couple of seniors Which, if you do not sneak successfully, will approach and urge you to leave food in the refrigerator.
This riddle you face is the one that will remain with you. This is one of those few moments of the game where you will take a break and think, and you actually have the agency to make an effective choice. You could find yourself in front of this desperate couple on the third consecutive day of your group without food. If you come home with empty hands, some of your civilians could starve before your next mission. If you take the food, you will keep you at the price of two strangers - and two very old, in addition. You sympathize with the couple? Do you first rationalize the needs of yourself and your own group? Do you take it or leave it? It is the finesse to tell these captivating stories and centralize these heartbreaking questions about self-reflection that makes the studios 11 bits so special.
The success and welcome for both This Mine and FROSTPUNK war put the studio on the map internationally as developers who offer unique and well-designed gaming experiences, and they also published a handle Exceptional games - including infants from Morta_ and _Moonlight, which sold more than one million copies and was the first great success of the 11-bit studio publishing branch. Their two most recent games have themes of war, struggle and moral dilemmas, but at the heart of the 11-bit creative goal is the desire to propose a gameplay that simply asks to the player to question and the World surrounding it, and gives them the complete power to make its own decisions without any judgment.
What we do is not necessarily centered on moral dilemmas, says Miechowski. We have a ton of ideas for future games that ... should not be as claims or confronting the player to moral dilemmas, but they should surely have the ability to cause reflection. Miechowski also suggested that we could see some lighter projects on the theme.
From one team of five to a company of 140, the 11-bit studios experienced more than one title. In just over ten years, they have a lot of a small group of veteran game developers in order to make fun and experimental games to visionary creators with a stubborn will to produce an entertainment that counts. With each title they publish, whether published or original, they really use the games as a way to turn the mirror to the player and inspire the reflection, conversation and personal reflection. If they have never attracted your attention before, it's time to keep a vigilant eye - you could end up learning something about yourself along the way.
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