If you currently live in the US, in Europe or in many other countries facing the Covid 19 crisis, you are (and you should be) stuck at home. Our Dear Villagers team is also staying safe home since last Monday, working remotely on our upcoming projects.
Many of you are taking advantage of this very strange times to play games, so are we! So we decided to bring a tiny bit of support and start a special “Stay Home Sale” in order to grant access to our games at a very affordable price including:
And also Aurion: Legacy of Kori-Odan, Impulsion, Pankapu, Post Human W.A.R, Spitkiss & Strikers Edge.
We hope you will enjoy playing our games or any other to be honest as long as you keep safe, #StayHome!
Bury me, my love celebrates its 2 years anniversary!
Bury me, my Love launched on mobile 2 years ago now! Before coming to consoles & PC, Bury me, my love was a mobile game. Created by the studio The Pixel Hunt with the help of Arte/Figs, Bury me, my Love is a Text Messaging Adventure game using an interface close to Whatsapp, a mobile app used by migrants to communicate with their family when they leave.
In Bury me, my love, we follow Nour, a Syrian migrant trying to find her way to Europe. Her husband Majd, who remains behind in Syria, communicates with Nour, advising her as best he can so that she reaches her destination safely.
It’s also important to know that the game is inspired by many real experiences lived by migrants. The original idea stems from an article written by Le Monde journalist, Lucie Soullier, telling the story of Dana, a young Syrian woman who fled her country and is now living in Germany. The devteam also discussed with migrants & gather many testimonies about what they had to deal with while they were crossing Europe.
Watch the release trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWRUcfXTlpE
Let’s go deeper in what the game itself offers. When you play Bury me, my love, you regularly receive text messages of Nour, telling you what she’s dealing with while you can’t really help her directly because of the distance. The main goal of the game will be to advise her through tough choices that migrants sometimes must deal with.
If you had the choice, would you cross by the land or the sea? Would you take a boat through Mediterranean Sea facing danger of drowning or starvation or would you use a smuggler who will be asking a lot of money without any guarantee that you’ll do the trip safely? Would you save your money in your socks or close to your belt? Would you take the bus or a flight to go through a country that is considered dangerous? All these questions are commonly lived by migrants, & these choices can often be life/death situations.
The purpose of Bury me, my Love is to convey in the most realistic way the daily life of a migrant going across Europe. By making you deal with the same dilemmas they have to deal with, you’ll maybe have a better understanding of what population that migrates face every day. Also, the game has 19 different endings depending on your choices & some are more tragic than others, again to portray in a more realistic way how dangerous the trip can be.
After its release, Bury me, my Love had been very well received by press & won many awards. Some of the most notable ones would be the Indie Games Contest by Google Play, the Developer Award at the Indiecade Europe, the Best Work award at the Japan Prize Audiovisual Division Best work among many others.
Even if Bury me, My love is from our old editorial line with Playdius, we’re glad we had the chance to have Bury me, my Love among our games. Following previous games like A Normal Lost Phone that give a take on social & geopolitical issues we face in our society, Bury me, my Love is a unique experience that will leave its audience a mark every time it’s played.
If you didn’t get to try Bury me, my Love, you can try it on iOS & Android, Nintendo Switch & PC, you can also add one of these codes to Steam (if you’re fast enough). Thanks for reading!
Using the codes of text message apps to tell a story
Could you imagine what a life without your smartphone would be? It’s probably pretty difficult – or it might even be nightmare material for some. In less than a decade, smartphones have become an absolute central piece of our lives. They hold our most precious pictures, our beloved tunes, our bank info and other sensitive data… And more than anything else, they allow us to easily and permanently stay in touch with the ones we love.
When it comes to that, text messages is the main tool – some people don’t even know what their phone’s ringtone is, as they always text and almost never call. That’s because texting is great. You may connect with someone who’s miles away and have the most intimate conversations whenever you feel like it, even if you’re in a crowded subway or attending a party. You can decide what you want to say or what you’d rather hide. You can share good news and leave bad ones out, or the other way around. Texting is a very intimate means of communication.
Nowadays, most migrants have smartphones too. For them, it isn’t a luxury; it rather is their only way to stay in touch with their loved ones. Through text message applications, they may keep their relatives updated on their situation, or seek information to proceed onwards in their journey. Of course, they crack jokes with their folks, and send them emojis and selfies… but three messages later, they might be discussing matters of life and death. Of course, they wait on agony when a message they’ve sent is shown as delivered but they don’t get any response… but for them, the stakes are often higher than an invitation to prom night.
This is the reason why Bury me, my Love replicates the interface of a mobile messaging app. Everybody knows what communicating with a loved one through text messages feels like, but it’s more complicated to understand what it feels like when you’re a migrant, or when your wife is. In this situation, being always connected is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because you’re never left not knowing what happens. A curse because if there’s something wrong, you’ll instantly know it… while not being able to do anything about it.
If you’ve ever sent a text to someone, you already know how to play Bury me, my Love. And if you’ve ever cried, laughed, gotten mad or felt incredible relief over a text you’ve received, then you already know how this game is going to make you feel.
Critically acclaimed Bury me, my Love is OUT NOW on Steam!
We wanted to let you know that the BAFTA-nominated and critically acclaimed Bury me, my Love launches today (10th January) for PC and Nintendo Switch.
The instant messaging narrative game tells the story of a young woman trying to escape from the Syrian conflict. It’s an emotional, bittersweet love story told from the perspective of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
Watch the release trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWRUcfXTlpE
If you're interested in the game or want to learn more about it, feel free to follow us on social media:
Bury me, my Love is, as we like to call it, a « reality-inspired game ». It isn’t a documentary, nor is it biographical. Nour and Majd are fictional characters that don’t actually exist. But they are directly inspired by lots of real migrants whose experiences were similar to what happens in the game - roughly 90% of what may happen to Nour in-game is directly inspired by true anecdotes.
One of our main writing guide and help was Dana. This young Syrian woman now lives in Germany, and when we contacted her to tell her about our game project, she agreed to be our editorial advisor. Her life experience, her advices and her script corrections have been super precious to us. They helped us reach our goal to write a story that would be as believable and true to reality as possible.
But Bury me, my Love isn’t just about Dana’s experience. Before we started writing the game’s story, we spend more than 3 months gathering documentation. We read news articles and interviews from a wide variety of sources, watched documentaries, consulted NGO reports... We wanted to have a very thorough view of the situation, and understand the realities and struggles migrants face during their journey.
The important thing is we did not approach the topic as activists, with an agenda or a point of view that we wanted to force on players. Our endeavour was closer to those of journalists or documentary filmmakers (we have two former journalists in the team). We were touched and moved by real-life stories that are often not told in mainstream medias, and we wanted to help more people be aware of them. And we thought that the best way to convey those very diverse stories, and to render the unpredictable nature of a migrant’s odyssey, was through a video game.
That’s how the concept for Bury me, my Love was born.
Bury me, My Love is launching on Steam on January 10th, don't forget to wishlist the game if you find it interesting!
If you don't wanna miss upcoming news, you can:
Follow @BMMLgame & @PlaydiusGames on Twitter
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Bury me, my Love: a reality-inspired game
Bury me, my Love is, as we like to call it, a « reality-inspired game ». It isn’t a documentary, nor is it biographical. Nour and Majd are fictional characters that don’t actually exist. But they are directly inspired by lots of real migrants whose experiences were similar to what happens in the game - roughly 90% of what may happen to Nour in-game is directly inspired by true anecdotes.
One of our main writing guide and help was Dana. This young Syrian woman now lives in Germany, and when we contacted her to tell her about our game project, she agreed to be our editorial advisor. Her life experience, her advice and her script corrections have been super precious to us. They helped us reach our goal to write a story that would be as believable and true to reality as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYaNM1QSFRM
But Bury me, my Love isn’t just about Dana’s experience. Before we started writing the game’s story, we spend more than 3 months gathering documentation. We read news articles and interviews from a wide variety of sources, watched documentaries, consulted NGO reports... We wanted to have a very thorough view of the situation, and understand the realities and struggles migrants face during their journey.
The important thing is we did not approach the topic as activists, with an agenda or a point of view that we wanted to force on players. Our endeavour was closer to those of journalists or documentary filmmakers (we have two former journalists in the team). We were touched and moved by real-life stories that are often not told in mainstream medias, and we wanted to help more people be aware of them. And we thought that the best way to convey those very diverse stories, and to render the unpredictable nature of a migrant’s odyssey, was through a video game.
That’s how the concept for Bury me, my Love was born.
