THE ART OF PLAY

What video games can teach you about yourself

- ANJULY MATHAI

I will come see you when they let me Until then close your eyes and I will walk with you, even if it is only through your memories of a country we no longer recognise

Written from the perspective of a political prisoner in India writing to his lover, this is poetry at its most haunting. Yet, it is not just poetry. This is the text for the video game 'Folds of a Separation', inspired by the Bhima Koregaon 16, a group of activists, lawyers and journalists arrested in 2018 for reportedly inciting violence at an event in Pune. 'Folds of a Separation' was created by Dhruv Jani's Studio Oleomingus, an independent game studio in Gujarat. Its games are deeply rooted in the Indian idiom, addressing head-on issues that the traditional media would give a wide berth to. But how do they get away with it in the current political climate where the space for dissent is fast diminishing? According to Jani, this is because, unlike other media, video games are strangely under the radar despite being so big.