The name change is an important one that reflects changes to the direction of the game post Gamecity 9.
As a name Congo War Child carried heavy weight, which I think is needed, but it was in the wrong areas. The game’s design has gone through a lot of changes but I feel that the current plan is one that I can pin down and work with until completion. Of course it will need fine-tuning through testing but is, in my opinion, a very solid base to build on.
The new title really distills what the game is about now and puts emphasis on the wider context and mood as opposed to narrative specifics. Congo War Child was a good title in that it grabbed attention and got people asking questions but it tied the game into a specific real world setting far too strongly. The documentary that sparked Restless Depths’ development focused solely on child soldiers in the DRC and, as the game is, at its heart, a reaction to that documentary, CWC felt like a title that would deliver the intended message and force people to think about the real world issue.
Now I’m of the opinion that, in this case, the gameplay is going to work best and most fluidly as a vessel for ideas and concepts and that using the game to talk about real world facts and events in any other way than in the visual design will be jarring, hence the name change and updated gameplay structure.
Anyway that’s enough rambling for now. Thanks for reading. If there’s anything you’d like to know about Restless Depths drop me a line.
Bye.
