A new game project, «Children of the Birch», based on the story of a revived forest full of characters from Slavic fairy tales and legends, is being developed in Russia. A team of students from six Russian universities Uvuik Smoniti, with the participation of students from the Finnish university WinNova, has prepared a playable prototype of this story in less than six months. 12 people are working on the game, most of whom are studying at the State Academic University for the Humanities, the Russian Technological University MIREA, the Higher School of Economics, the National Institute of Design, and the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.
According to Stepan Kuznetsov, the project manager and game designer, the game has several goals. First, it will introduce people to Old Russian culture and folklore. Secondly, the developers hope that their game world will help people cope with life's problems and depression, as was the case with the Japanese Dark Souls game series.
Slavic folklore for us is an inspiration and material for interesting references and themes. We will not copy standardized ideas, we will not have Zmey Gorynych and his fairy-tale friends. We have come up with something new within the setting, without breaking it or destroying the immersion in the world. Our key benchmarks are projects such as the slasher Sekiro about medieval Japan or the platformer Nine Sols with references to Eastern culture. These games are built in their own unique universes, but do not copy ideas from traditional mythologies, but create something of their own, making many references to the original sources. We have a similar task.
Finally, the niche of platformer games based on Russian folklore is practically free, and new items in it will be of interest to gamers of all ages.
The release date of the game has not yet been announced. It is also unclear whether it will find the necessary marketing and publishing support.
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