

Developer Angela He, in doing studies on refugees for a game, found many horrific stories of North Korea’s struggles under Kim Jong Un’s leadership. Even so, he seems to be the butt of jokes – his cruelty somehow something funny – and she set out to cast a more sobering eye on life under his rule in Suppressed, a game of a child trying to escape a totalitarian regime.

A happy boy finds himself in a dark place after his family gets exiled, leaving him alone and depressed. After a while spent struggling on his own, the boy decides to escape his fate, trying to find a way to leave the regime that controls his country. Along the way, he can choose to help other people, learning their own bleak stories and of the full extent of what this rule has done to his fellow people. Through platforming and story, the developer hopes to inspire a little more empathy, and less crass humor, about the people living this kind of life.





Suppressed is available for free on Itch.io and GameJolt. For more information on the game and developer Angela He, you can head to the developer’s site or follow them on YouTube and Twitter. The game is also seeking votes on Steam Greenlight.

Joel Couture http://www.indiegamesplus.com Joel has been covering indie games for various sites including IndieGames.com, Siliconera, Gamasutra, Warp Door, CG Magazine, and more over the past seven years, and has written book-length studies on Undertale and P.T.. Joel is constantly on the lookout for digital experiences that push the boundaries of what games can be, and seeks to delve into the creative process, meanings, and emotion labor that goes into the work of artists worldwide. See author's posts