How a Syrian refugee's story became a JRPG

[Administrator]

It could be any other throwback 16-bit adventure. I'm standing near low trees on the far side of a corrugated iron shack, waiting for a guard to turn around so I can break for the road at the top of the screen. The furnishings are the stuff of Final Fantasy 4, albeit passed through the guts of Fallout - chubby oil drums, wide-eyed chibi sprites, some nicely chiselled ruins. Only the black Islamic State flag draped across one wall gives it away. Created with the aid of German developer Causa Creations, Path Out is based on designer Abdullah Karam's experiences as a refugee, fleeing the war in Syria - a real-life survival story dressed up as an episodic Japanese role-playing game.
It's a tale that, in Karam's words, aims for "a sense of both immersion and alienation", wooing the nostalgic player with its retro ambience only to rip the carpet from beneath you. It's also, somehow, a game with a hearty sense of humour - one that turns the camera's gaze back mischievously toward the player's preconceptions rather than striving to objectify its subject's predicament. Karam has recorded a number of YouTuber-style reaction videos that trigger at certain points in the story: die while navigating a minefield and he'll pop up in one corner to troll you, gleeful at his own demise.
The Syrian civil war is now in its seventh year, with no end in sight. Sparked by the massacre of anti-government protestors in March 2011, it has led to the deaths of almost half a million people, with a further million people injured. Approximately 12 million others - half the country's peacetime population - have been forced from their homes, many fleeing the Middle East altogether in hopes of a new life in western Europe. There have been hundreds of casualties along the way. Some Syrians have perished while crossing the Mediterranean in crowded, barely sea-worthy vessels. Others have succumbed to hypothermia while traversing the open country in winter. Those that make it to central Europe often face indifference at best, open hostility at worst, as far-right groups and reactionary media outlets mobilise against what they style an "invasion". Karam's hope is that Path Out will help counter such bigotry and inspire players in other countries to petition their elected representatives for some kind of long-term resolution.
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