Path Out is is an autobiographical adventure game that allows the players to replay the journey of Abdullah Karam, a young Syrian artist that escaped the civil war in 2014. Camouflaged as a Japanese RPG, Path Out is a tale full of surprises, challenges and paradoxical humor, giving insight in this real-life adventure, on which Abdullah comments through youtube-style videos in the game.
Features:
- JRPG based on real events
- Relive Abdullahs escape from war-torn syria.
- Unique neo-orchestral electronica music with oriental influences by wobblersound.
- Meticulously researched pixel art style inspired by classic 16-bit games and Syrian art
- Video commentary by Abdullah Karam
Path Out is an episodic game. In this very first part of the adventure (“The Walls of Silence”), Abdullah recalls life before the war, a family decision that led to his departure and the perilous journey from his hometown Hama to the Turkish border through the war-torn Aleppo province. In its final version of up to five episodes, the game should take the player on a journey from Syria through Turkey, Greece and the Balkan until he finally arrives at his destination (and current whereabout) in Central Europe.
The game is deliberately designed in the style of classic role playing games, a graphical language which stands in sharp contrast with the portrayed sujet and the dramatic events of the game. Despite politicizing a genre that is mostly known for fantasy and horror themes, the game doesn’t want to appear moralistic or educational, but create a radically different way to tell the story of a young Syrian refugee from his very own perspective.
Another tool for this strategy is the ongoing presence of Abdullah as a youtuber style video commentator in the game itself, scolding the player for getting “himself” killed or making snide remark on oriental design elements that might be too stereotypical. His relationship with the player character is kept ambiguous on purpose. While the journey is clearly based on Abdullah’s personal path, the player character will also experience stories by friends and relatives. Again, this narrative freedom will be commented on via video.
Path Out is a collaboration between Abdullah Karam, the developers of Causa Creations and the Austrian-American graphic designer Brian Maine. The project started as a chance encounter between Abdullah and Causa’s Georg Hobmeier who met more or less by accident in Salzburg in Fall 2015. Together with the Vienna based graphic artist Brian Maine, who became Abdullah mentor, they set out to create Path Out. After securing base funding for a prototype through various grants for artistic research in collaboration with Vienna’s University for Applied Arts, they commenced working on it in later 2016. Currently the game is in early development, a demo version of the first chapter will be published in spring 2017 for PC, MAC and Android devices.
