UNRESOLVED
Text-based interactive narrative provoking empathy with the families of the enforced disappeared.
Unresolved is a text-based interactive narrative that’s aims to put you in the shoes of the families of the disappeared. The enforced disappeared are the people that go missing, usually during war and conflict. is a world-spread phenomenon that has happened in every continent around the world, and is still ongoing is Syria, Yemen and Palestine. Their families try to find them, yet unfortunately almost always fail. They are faced with social, economical and even legal barriers that place them in a severe psychological state called 'Ambiguous Loss'.
You start by playing Jamila, a wife of a disappeared with 3 children living in a poor Lebanese neighbourhood in the middle of the civil war. You need to take care of your children, do the house chores, pay the bills and most importantly find evidence on your missing husband.
You are forced to make frustrating decisions that will affect you and your family greatly. Which bill to pay with your limited money? School fee or electricity? Would you surrender to child labor? Would you believe random callers on your landline asking you for money in exchange for info on your missing husband?
Each decision you make will hugely alter the narrative of the game. At a certain level, you will transport through time and will become one of your children. The personality of that child is dependant on your previous decisions and on how you, as the mother, treated them throughout the game.
Each decision you make will hugely alter the narrative of the game. At a certain level, you will transport through time and will become one of your children. The personality of that child is dependant on your previous decisions and on how you, as the mother, treated them throughout the game.
Games are powerful empathetic tools. As game designers, we owe it to ourselves, and to the world, to use this power to shed light on important humanitarian messages that might actually have an impact. With 'Unresolved', I aim to do two things: provoke empathy with those unheard suffering families, and inform people on the dangers of enforced disappearance and its cruel impact on the families in particular, and the society in general.
