The apocalypse is really bad this time.

We’re pretty used to political narratives in books, films and songs. But what about narrative gaming? Plenty of people have certainly given it a go – with mixed results. We talk to someone who is currently trying her hand at it.

Laney Berry, the creator of The St. Christopher’s School Lockdown joins us to talk about how political narratives can be played out in games. We discuss: how to get across nuance without being preachy; empathising with those who would disagree with you; and things you can and can’t do through this particular medium.

Oh. And we apologise, but we felt that some of our early discussion was a little bit superficial. So, we asked for some clarification and contextual dialogue from another games designer – one Peter Toleman of Priapic Mountain games. He gives us a little speech as a “disclaimer” before the episode starts.

The demo for SCLD (as nobody is calling it), is available now from their website. Do give it a go. It involves sex aids.

We first met Laney in person at the AdventureX conference in London. Here’s a picture of her taking a picture of our last guest Alisdair Beckett-King taking a picture of people playing her game and her taking a picture of him.

Meta AF, right?

Anyway – we hope you enjoy this episode, whatever your political bent. The idea is not to argue that all games ought to be liberal, unbiased or inclusive; but rather to explore how political ideas can be explored and expressed in video games in ways that maybe they can’t be in other media. And in particular, how can narrative or adventure games get to grips with these themes?

You can listen to this masterpiece by using the player at the bottom of this post, downloading the audio here, or watching this very professional video from the YubTubs.

Edit: Can you include this photograph for no reason at all? Tak. Fred.