Imagine a world were the destructive forces of colonisation could be wiped away and see country restored?
Welcome to Blaktasia.
Set in a fantasy version of Australia, Blaktasia: Invasion of the Murk aims to mix traditional customs with modern game design in order to create a first-of-its-kind experience.
Naarm-based and Indigenous-led developer GUCK is the creator.
Lead Game Designer Phoebe Watson says the game is about “caring for country and restoring the bush” after a cataclysmic event.
Players will be tasked with defeating an entity known as the ‘Murk’ a greedy parasite that has taken over and striped away all the magic from the world.
The Murk is a metaphor for colonialism and visually, was inspired by conversations between Phoebe and her mother.
“I was really inspired by blackberry bushes, my mum used to be a park ranger, and she’s all for the sustainability and native wildlife and native plants and stuff.
“She always told me how evil the blackberry bushes were, because they would take up all the space, all the sunlight and all the nutrients from all the native plants.”
GUCK has been holding discussions with communities and elders to help create the world of Blaktasia.
Ms Watson says the conversations have been key to the game’s development.
“It’s been a very long process over the last few years. It’s something that we’re doing constantly.
“It’s not really something you do once or even a couple times.
“We’ve really embedded it through all of our processes.”
Programmer Elijah McDonald says the game is the first of its kind.
“I don’t think there’s many other cases of this in Australia or even the world, there’s a couple of others out there, but, yeah, it just allows for a completely different way of working.”
Recently the game made its global debut at Naarm’s Big Games Night Out which included an interactive experience featuring Robert K Champion & The Blaktasia Band, DJ Soju Gang and a line-dancing performance.
Mr McDonald says it feels great to share the game with the world.
“We’re able to put something out that we’ve been working on for so long and are really proud of.
“It’s the big public debut of the project and of the universe.”
Ms Watson says Blaktasia’s development has stood out from her time in the game industry.
“There’s nothing as collaborative as what we do, because of the nature of the project and the team, we really take our time to get everyone’s thoughts and generate those ideas together.
“It has meant that the process is a lot slower, but I find that the kind of the meaning making and the ideas that we’re generating are totally unique and really special.”
To keep up to date on Blaktasia’s development you can head to its instagram page.
Image supplied
