Journal of Geek Studies jgeekstudies.org Through the Darkest of Times: life as the resistance during the Third Reich Interview with Jörg Friedrich Through the Darkest of Times is a histor- al historical time-line, which influence the ical strategy video game taking place in player’s options. The game is under devel- Berlin during the Third Reich, from Hitler’s opment by Berlin-based studio Paintbucket seizure of power in 1933 to Germany’s sur- Games1, made up by the duo Jörg Friedrich render in 1945. The player leads a civilian and Sebastian Schulz. It will be published resistance group fighting off the new re- by HandyGames in the near future and is gime how they can. The resistance is made already listed on Steam. up of common people, from all walks of life, so it’s the leader’s job to win hearts and The Journal of Geek Studies interviewed minds and hold the group together. The Jörg Friedrich to understand how such a player will be responsible for planning the unique game like Through the Darkest of group’s activity and survive by avoiding Times came to be. You can read the full in- the Gestapo. All of this while actual history terview below. unfolds outside: the game follows the actu- 1 Be sure to check out their website (http://paintbucket.de/). 49 Interview Q: On your website, you mention that a Spec Ops: The Line – an AAA shooter that game focusing on the civil resistance during asked players to shoot people and blamed Third Reich Germany just had to be made. them when they did. It was supposed to We agree, of course, but would you care to make players feel bad. elaborate a little more on this? Back in 2012 this was special. It felt like A: The story of civilian resistance fight- a game that needed to be made. We felt like ers in Germany is a story that people must pioneers, we felt like we tried something learn about – these normal people with new by taking a new stance on war and on families, with normal jobs, saw what was war in games. going on the world and decided they had to do something against it. They went un- Making Through the Darkest of Times feels derground and risked their lives to stop an similar – we try to find a new way on how inhumane regime. games treat Nazism. We think this is a story that must be told. As political people, certain develop- Q: Do you believe game developers have ments in the world, the fact that we see fas- a responsibility when representing History? cists rise again, here in Germany but also in Should this come before artistic freedom? many more countries in Europe and in the A: We learn history not only at school, US, worries us a lot. In 2017 we wondered but also from the stories told to us by mov- what we could do about this and the only ies, books and well – video games. thing we are good at is making games, so we thought “hey let’s make a game that But if someone would learn everything takes an anti-fascist stance and maybe it he knows about Nazism from games, he will make the world a better place!” might conclude that Nazis are villains like the Empire in Star Wars: somewhat evil, but As game developers and artists, we like they have cool uniforms and tanks and are to push the boundaries of the medium. Se- in the end just a faction like any other. bastian and I met when we were working for YAGER, where we made a game called I find it problematic, that most games Journal of Geek Studies 6(1): 49-54 (2019). Through the Darkest of Times with Nazis don’t even mention the murder- rative medium of our time – as developers ous anti-Semitism, the slow rise of Fascism we must take responsibility and tell things or the Shoa. the way they happened just as movies did a couple of decades ago. I know that these games usually have no bad intention by omitting these facts, they often do it to avoid controversy. But honestly: if you think mentioning the his- Q: Current gaming culture is often re- torical crimes of the Nazis is inappropriate ferred to as toxic, where sexist, racist, ho- for your game, maybe picking Nazis as a mophobic behavior unfortunately abound. faction or theme for your game is what is Do you believe that might be related to the inappropriate here. ideals that games historically presented? Can game developers help change this cul- ture? Q: Nazism seems to have become just A: Yes, I think so. The way games were another Hollywood trope nowadays. Are marketed since the 1990’s until recently, you concerned about how Nazi Germany is towards young men, featuring the ideal of depicted in current games? tough white guys who like hot girls and solve problems with their guns, appealed to A: Here is the problem: if your game is a specific type. And this type feels now enti- about Nazis, but in your game, they do not tled to games. They think it is their medium commit any war crimes, there is no Aus- and that developers need to create games chwitz, no Shoa, then you create a historical for them and only for them. narrative in which the Nazis didn’t commit these crimes. This was never true, because of course there were always all kinds of people play- And that’s the narrative that is told by ing video games, but we now have this ex- Neo-Nazis who try to white-wash historical tremely entitled, extremely loud and toxic Nazism, so people are less hesitant to open bunch of guys who yell the loudest and for far-right ideologies. think they can dominate the Internet and Video games is the most important nar- our medium. 51 Interview We must not let them. We must not lis- sources necessary for your fight. ten to their demands; leave them stew in their own juice and just ignore them. Let’s The group members are civilians, who make games that are open and inclusive, are suddenly thrown into a situation where for an open and diverse audience instead of they must do something illegal and risk making games for the Christchurch killer2. their life to resist the regime. Members have different biographies and political views, which can lead to conflicts within the group and keeping up morale and members from Q: So, let’s turn to the game now. What simply giving up can be tough. exactly is the players’ goal in Through the Darkest of Times? So you try to do as much good as you can and lead you and your group through the A: You play a leader of a civilian resis- darkest of times. tance group in Berlin in 1933 when Hitler becomes chancellor. You try to fight the re- gime with acts of sabotage and later attacks, educate people and let them know the truth Q: There are some games out there with about the Nazis’ plans and their doings, a healthy dose of historical backgrounds, and help the persecuted, by hiding them or such as Ubisoft’s Valiant Hearts and Assas- getting them out of the country. sin’s Creed. How does Through the Darkest of Times approach History? Your goal is to persist as a group until the end of the war and do as much of the A: Every turn in the game is one histori- three things mentioned as possible without cal week. At the beginning of each turn you being caught by the Gestapo. get the news with what happened in that week – based on the historical events of In order to achieve this you need to send that week. But history influences the game your members on missions and organize re- mechanics too: at the beginning you don’t 2 The Christchurch mosque shootings were two terrorist attacks conducted by an Australian alt-right white su- premacist in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019. Over 50 people were killed and another 50 were in- jured. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the event as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.” (Source: Wikipedia) Journal of Geek Studies 6(1): 49-54 (2019). Through the Darkest of Times need to be too worried, there are even pub- there are a lot of memorial sites and local lic protests against the regime happening in annalists we got in touch with. We read in- the streets where you and your group can terviews of course and we talked to descen- join. But over time, the repression increases; dants of civilian resistance fighters. after the Reichstag fire, the city is full of SA and things are dangerous; and once the Ge- stapo is founded and the first concentration Q: How faithfully does the game follow camp is built, things are dangerous. real-life events of the Third Reich? Can the There are also big historical events that players expect to “change the course of his- you witness through narrative sequences to tory”? give you more a feeling of being there, than A: In the main game, the historical events just in the strategy mode. and what you read in the news all follow History also influenced the looks of the the actual historical timeline. Your char- game. Sebastian was inspired by German acter, the members of the group and your expressionists of the 1920’s who were later supporters are fictional though, and so are banned by the Nazis as un-German art.