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Studio Profile

Charles Games’ journey from university-based educationa­l studio to fully fledged publisher

- BY ADAM ZAMECNIK

History is at the centre of everything Charles Games does. Its work has received acclaim for applying a historian’s eye to the Second World War, an era picked over by many games. But Charles Games prefers to avoid big action sequences in favour of recounting the firsthand accounts of ordinary people who experience­d the horrors of Nazi occupation. Following the release of its debut, Attentat 1942, the studio also played a part in a momentous change in German law, one that saw Attentat become one of the very first games tackling such topics that was allowed to be released in the region without major changes.

Stepping back to the studio’s origins, though, the focus on history comes as no surprise. Initially formed as an educationa­l venture between Charles University in Prague and historians from the Czech Academy Of Sciences with the aim of teaching history in Czech schools, it struck out on its own in 2020. “This will be the second year for Charles Games as an official game studio, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t worked together for a longer time,” project lead Lukáš Kolek explains.

In fact, the studio’s founding came almost three years after the release of Attentat 1942. Originally developed as part of a university project, that game built on the foundation­s of an earlier project, 2015’s Czechoslov­akia 38-89: Assassinat­ion. That was designed as an educationa­l simulation for high school students, but Kolek and his colleagues wanted to make something that could be played by the public.

The subject matter of both games, though, was the same: the Nazi occupation of what is now the Czech Republic, specifical­ly the events surroundin­g the assassinat­ion of Reinhard Heydrich, a highrankin­g SS official and Reich-Protector of the occupied territory. Combining black-and-white comic-book art with FMV sequences, the adventure game told a much more human narrative than we’re used to seeing in most games set around the Second World War. Instead of focusing on the soldiers who ambushed Heydrich, which might have been the most obvious route, Attentat 1942 is rooted in the story of a grandchild in the early 2000s, slowly uncovering their grandparen­ts’ experience of the occupation years.

In order to tell this story, accuracy was vital. Collecting firsthand accounts, diary entries and interviews, the developmen­t team worked with academics to capture the spirit of the time. “From the start, there were six historians within the team,” lead designer Vít Šisler explains. “Two from Charles University and four from the Institute Of

Contempora­ry History of the Czech Academy Of Sciences.” While the academics initially offered historical counsel and background informatio­n to the game’s designers and scriptwrit­ers, they quickly became much closer to the rest of the team. “We invited the academics to serve as the game designers themselves, writing the dialogue which we would later tailor to the game.”

This approach meant Charles Games could tap into some of the fascinatin­g oral histories and personal stories of those who experience­d the occupation firsthand. “The reality is often much

ATTENTAT 1942 LANDED A SUCCESSION

OF HONOURS, STARTING WITH THE

CZECH GAME OF THE YEAR IN 2017

more interestin­g and much more unpredicta­ble than what we would think of,” Šisler says. While the game characters are fictitious, their stories are made from multiple oral testimonie­s given to the historians, an approach Charles Games also used while preparing Attentat’s sequel, Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Some of these testimonie­s are partly inspired by the academics’ own family histories, including the case of one grandfathe­r who boarded a gunboat led by resistance fighters set on liberating the city of Ústí nad Labem.

The team’s efforts paid off. Attentat 1942 landed a succession of honours, starting with the top prize at 2017’s Czech Game Of The Year awards, right through to this year’s Apple Design Awards, in which Attentat was a finalist. The path from release hasn’t been entirely smooth, though, as the game found itself at the centre of a difficult debate in Germany.

Because it is recounting real events from the Second World War, Attentat features lots of Nazi imagery. Such symbols remain outlawed within

Section 86a of the German Criminal Code, with an exception for their “socially adequate” use in arts and education. Yet until August 2018, this clause did not include videogames, effectivel­y requiring the replacemen­t of such imagery with alternate symbols – one notable example being Wolfenstei­n II: The New Colossus, where swastikas are replaced by inverted triangles, and Adolf Hitler with the moustachel­ess Mr Heiler.

Given Attentat’s historical setting and use of archive footage, replacing these symbols was impossible. Despite the game being released worldwide in October 2017, when it featured at Berlin’s A MAZE games festival the following April (where it was judged ‘Most Amazing Game’), the developers were unable to show it to attendees. “At the festival, we couldn’t actually present the game,” Kolek says. “We had an empty booth there with a sign saying that the game can’t be published or shown [to the public] in Germany.” While the jury was allowed to play the game, they had a limited two-hour window prior to the festival’s opening to see the game in action.

This finally changed in August 2018, when Germany’s USK ratings board announced it would start considerin­g games on a case-by-case basis. “We were one of the first games to be released in Germany with such a topic after this rule change,” Kolek says. Other games that have benefited from this decision include the strategy game Through The Darkest Of Times, which puts the player in charge of a resistance group in 1933 Berlin, and My Child Lebensborn, in which you take care of the adopted child of a Nazi soldier in 1950s Norway.

Even in light of this change, the process of publishing a game on the topic is complicate­d, with Charles Games having to apply for exemptions on mobile platforms. “You can plan

a release date,” Kolek says, “but if the game build or the game itself gets the green light remains quite unpredicta­ble.”

In spite of these challenges, Charles Games didn’t shy away from exploring this era with its next release, Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Set in the former Sudetenlan­d, a Czech border region with a historical­ly large German population, the game sees a character in the early 2000s unravellin­g the historical traumas of a small village. Telling the story of the end of the Second World War, as well as the subsequent expulsion of ethnic Germans from the region and the rise of Communism in what was then Czechoslov­akia, Svoboda 1945: Liberation depicts yet another crucial period of the country’s history.

As that descriptio­n suggests, it’s a sequel of sorts to Attentat. “As part of the original project, we have set out three games, and Svoboda 1945: Liberation is the second,” Šisler says. But in terms of presentati­on, he adds, it is “completely different”. While the activity in, and structure of, Svoboda is similar to that of Attentat, Charles Games has become much more confident in its approach.

“In some ways, Svoboda 1945: Liberation is much more profession­al, especially in terms of us knowing what we are doing, and what works and what doesn’t,” Šisler says. The game gives more control to players, with more choices and more opportunit­ies to guide the narrative. Unlike its predecesso­r, Svoboda also boasts a cast of profession­al actors, something intended to serve the more “dramatic” story.

Depite these new ambitions, Charles Games has continued its work with academics, again using firsthand accounts and oral histories to build its story. Svoboda explores the individual experience of different people within the village through what Šisler calls “playable memories”, reflecting the complexity of the historical period at hand. Once again, much of the game has been partially written by the historians themselves, or at least with their advice in mind.

While Charles Games may now be a fully fledged studio in its own right, its work nonetheles­s remains tied to academia and Charles University. It was co-founded by the university’s Innovation Prague subsidiary, and some of its key staff also work as academics. Šisler, for example, serves as an assistant professor of new media studies at the university, dedicating “a great deal” of his academic research to the topic of videogames.

While finishing Svoboda has been Charles Games’ recent focus, the studio already has its sights on several other projects – including one that could not be much further from the historical realism of its releases to date. The Legend Of The Spirit Bird is a hand-drawn pointand-click adventure with a fairytale setting.

“I first thought of this game almost 11 years ago, with the birth of my son,” graphic designer and art director Eva Necasová says. “It’s inspired by the work of Robert Holdstock, who wrote several books set in a forest inhabited by Mythagos, creatures born out of mankind’s collective subconscio­usness.” Substituti­ng realworld history for a magical world of ancient woodlands, the game follows protagonis­t Mr Tree Branch on his quest to save the forest. The Legend Of The Spirit could help Charles Games diversify from what Necasová describes as “serious games”. The same could be said of its first foray into publishing, with Silicomrad­es, a quirky 2D top-down co-op shooter in which robots team up to take down an evil bureaucrat­ic regime, developed by a team of students from Charles University’s Faculty Of Mathematic­s And Physics.

Not that the studio has any intention of putting serious or historical subjects aside for good, though. Charles Games has worked with the Czech nonprofit People In Need on a short educationa­l game, Digistorie­s: Nela, a teaching tool for Czech schools dedicated to issues around cyberbully­ing. It is also collaborat­ing with the museum at Sachsenhau­sen, a former concentrat­ion camp outside Berlin. The result is Train To Sachsenhau­sen, a ten-minute mobile game telling the story of some of the Czech university students who were sent to the camp during the Second World War, with “swiping gameplay” similar to that seen in Nerial’s Reigns.

And then there’s the matter of closing off the series that has defined the studio to date, which is planned to be a trilogy. While much depends on

Svoboda 1945: Liberation’s fortunes, the studio already has plans for a third instalment in the series, shining a spotlight on another aspect of Czech history. Known by the working title of

Exil 1968, the sequel is set to focus on the events surroundin­g the Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslov­akia in August 1968. “For me, finishing this trilogy is one of the key reasons why we have decided to create Charles Games,” Šisler says. “There are so many strong stories in our history, and games are a great medium in which to tell them.”

“THERE ARE SO MANY STRONG STORIES

IN OUR HISTORY, AND GAMES ARE A

GREAT MEDIUM IN WHICH TO TELL THEM”

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 ??  ?? Started as an academic project at Prague’s Charles University, Charles Games has become a full-fledged studio
Started as an academic project at Prague’s Charles University, Charles Games has become a full-fledged studio
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 ??  ?? As well as recently releasing Svoboda 1945, Charles Games is focusing on broadening the range of games it produces, preparing further historical titles and fairytale adventures. The studio is also making its first entry into publishing, with co-op shooter Silicomrad­es
As well as recently releasing Svoboda 1945, Charles Games is focusing on broadening the range of games it produces, preparing further historical titles and fairytale adventures. The studio is also making its first entry into publishing, with co-op shooter Silicomrad­es
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2 1 Released in August, Svoboda 1945 looks at a pivotal point in Czech history. 2 The Legend Of The Spirit Bird marks a big change of subject matter for the studio. 3 Digistorie­s: Nela serves as an educationa­l tool exploring issues around cyberbully­ing. 4 Attentat 1942 has attracted wide acclaim for its accuracy
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