Weary Witness
Status: Completed in 2012
Collaborators: Mamoun Matar, Siddharth Gautam, Shrikar Marur, Viplov Singh
My role: Concept, Programmer, Level Designer, Animator
Links: Visionaire forum
“Welcome to Israel! Have a safe trip”, said the border official when I set foot onto Jericho, an ancient Palestinian city being one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world.
Passing through settlements springing on top of every hill and expanding every day is nothing new. What was going through people's minds? How do they deal with being refugees and the burden of occupation partly seen through humiliation at checkpoints every day? While others enjoy their lavish swimming pools, fine wine, and freedom to move wherever they like.
Making their voices heard in an interactive medium would draw people into this piece and engage them in different ways. Weary Witness provides a peek into the West Bank. In this game, a player can formulate multiple perspectives, opt their own path and draw differing conclusions. There is a mixture of fiction and documentary as well as film and animation. And like all games, this one has its own sense of humour!
Weary Witness is an adventure game with film elements in it played on PC. Feel free to download it.