Upcoming PC, XNA-Based Game Explores Iranian Election Riots

Veteran former EA Los Angeles programmer Borut Pfeifer has announced the development of an upcoming PC and Xbox 360 downloadable game focused on the protests and riots that followed the controversial Iranian presidential election in June of this year. Pfeifer's game, tentatively titled The Unconcerned, puts players in control of a mother and father who are searching for their lost daughter in the streets of Tehran. The pair will wade through rioting crowds during their journey, and must either avoid or negotiate with protesters and police that block their way. Throughout the game, players will encounter puzzles and situations that require either the mother or the father alone to solve. In-game characters will respond to each parent differently, based on gender, and conversation choices change appropriately. The Iranian presidential election sparked international controversy earlier this year for alleged election fraud, and protesters rallied in support of defeated opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The ensuing riots resulted in dozens of arrests and casualties, and authorities blocked Internet access and censored outgoing media covering the event. "Games have the power to put people in other's shoes, to illustrate what effect roles have on a person," Pfeifer writes in the project's fundraiser site. "Games, as preeminent art form of the 21st century, must and will bring to light difficult issues, in ways that can inform, entertain, make us question the world around us, and hopefully inspire us to change it."