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CGD Blog #2 : Research and Multiplayer Design

"A landmine is the perfect soldier: Ever courageous, never sleeps, never misses"
- Paul Jefferson, Humanitarian Deminer. 

The primary motive for designing this game, beside the entertainment and competitive value it provides, was to shed light on the current plight of people affected by active landmines today. There is an estimated 110mn buried around the world right now. Each costing anywhere between 3$ to 30$ to produce, but an exorbitant $300-$1000 for safe defusal for each, with estimates showing costs of up to a $100bn to eradicate all mines today. Sadly, new ladmines are still being placed today, ever increasing the number of active mines out there.

Mines kill or maim more than 5000, while causing 15-20,000 injuries annually, with a significant percent of those being children. The regions most affected are Egypt, Angola, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam. 

At the time when I was in the earlier stages of development, the Ukraine-Russia conflict had not begun yet. In March, we were getting heart wrenching news from Ukraine and sadly there were reports of landmines being placed with no regard on open roads by Russian forces. Thus the idea of having 3 unique maps was born each set in a real world location- the Concrete Jungle, the Dunes of Baghdad and the Quang Tri Province.

Extensive research through articles and documentary series were conducted to fully understand the situation and how it is dealt with, how people are employed today to locate and disarm mines, in remote and impoverished locations. Though the game is not set in post war times where most of the research is from, I believe thorough understanding of the background in which one designs their game is necessary to get the message and emotion across the video game medium. Through this research and through years of playing stealth games, the basis for the 4 playable operators was decided upon. 

As with all my games, I take great pride in designing meaningful levels, both from a narrative and a gameplay perspective. It was rather easy to settle on the final setting for the maps after the research, as it was both logical and desirable to have 3 distinct locations with distinct visual and gameplay feel, that is well rooted in real world history as well.


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