WikiLeaks and the NSA controversy have inspired a lot of heated debates about the balance of security and privacy, but they motivated designer Neven Mrgan to design a new iOS game called Blackbar, which provides a playful preview of what life might be like in a police state.
Blackbar is easy to learn, challenging to finish, and unsettling. Players must carefully read letters passed between two characters, Vi and Kenty, which have been censored by their government's "Department of Communication," and reveal redacted words using contextual clues.
The first screens are simple and only ask you to guess a word or two, but the elementary game mechanic escalates rapidly with some screens that have been entirely blacked out. Paying close attention to the storyline is imperative as the puzzles become trickier as the game progresses. “I wanted a game mechanic inextricably tied to the story,” says Mrgan. “The story is the mechanic, the mechanic is the story. You can't ‘skip the dialog.’” It’s a clandestine crossword puzzle and surprisingly fun—if you can embrace the tax form aesthetic.
The narrative is set in an indeterminate but seemingly modern setting, yet the game's art direction is thoroughly retro. The entire app is themed to look like mid-century paper correspondance and features a monospaced font like those used on a typewriter. Mrgan, who grew up in Communist Yugoslavia in the 1980s, was inspired by his personal experiences, but also themed environments like Disneyland that use nostalgia for dramatic effect. "Retro works because it speaks a new cultural language of pop references," says Mrgan. "If you show someone a 'late 1970s Atari' design, that'll evoke a whole bunch of emotions and associations."
Mrgan simplified the interface to such a spartan level that he calls it "App Store poison," but the simple style does keep attention entirely on the narrative and its message. "I feel that games often junk up the writing part of the whole thing," says Mrgan. "Games need stories that aren't just there to move the player from one shooting zone to the next. Stories can become intertwined with interactivity, and ideally the two should fully depend on one another."
Blackbar has no cut scenes, leaderboards, or invitations to share your code-cracking chops on Facebook. In many ways it is barely a game—the story follows a strict linear flow, but one hidden fork can change the way it ends. "I knew I'd have to break the pattern once," says Mrgan. "Defying a well-established rule intentionally and dramatically is a powerful interactive tool."
The trend of intelligence agencies spying on citizens in unsettling, but Blackbar also reflectings another movement — UI designers creating games. When he's not busy questioning authority with clever puzzles Mrgan is a designer at Panic, an award-winning software company that has earned legions of fans for its engineering tools. Like Dots and Letterpress, Blackbar was crafted by a designer without traditional "game design" bona fides and reflects a very different sensibility than the "'ville" empire created by Zynga. "Every new medium and invention, once it has served its utilitarian purposes sufficiently, becomes a vehicle for entertainment and art," says Mrgan. "Radio, for instance, was originally going to empower commerce and bring us news, yet it truly took off in the mainstream when it started delivering music and variety shows."
Blackbar has been a critical success and there is no shortage of material for a sequel. "I could hardly go a day without hearing about yet another problem stemming from the amount of information we trust private and public agencies with," says Mrgan. "As long as there's authority, there'll be some push and pull regarding the limits of power and the boundaries of privacy." And as long as there is conflict, it will be turned into games.
Blackbar costs $2.99 and is available on iTunes.
