Serenity Forge’s upcoming title Land of Screens is a point-and-click adventure that aims to challenge players to reexamine their relationship with social media. It is not the first game this indie developer has created with the goal of making players reflect, and it will certainly not be the last.
The studio, also known for Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, Death’s Gambit: Afterlife, and a host of other intriguing titles, was founded by Zhenghua "Z" Yang. Z spoke with Game Rant about Land of Screens and his career as a developer, and how he hopes that the video game industry can become more focused on narrative-driven experiences that help players to broaden their horizons.
The Origins of Serenity Forge
Based in Boulder, Colorado, Serenity Forge began life when Z started making games while studying at university. His vision was shaped by a traumatic period of his life, when he was diagnosed with a near-fatal illness at 18 and hospitalized for two years. “During that time I played a lot of games,” Z said. “These games helped me to feel connected to the rest of the world.”
The support and advice he obtained from new friends and online communities ultimately helped him survive. “It’s just phenomenal what video games did for me during those years,” he said. The experience led him to question the value games might have beyond being simple playthings.
“What if I started making games with the intention of helping other people? What kind of power can we unlock there?”
The statement “we create impactful games that challenge the way you think” is the first thing seen upon visiting Serenity Forge’s website, and this mantra certainly permeates the studio's roster of titles. While Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is a commentary on mental health, games like Where The Water Tastes Like Wine present alternative visions of America, using stories from the Dust Bowl era to explore subjects like xenophobia and cultural identity.
“I wrote a number of Asian American stories,” Z said. “About, for example, immigration policies in the Dust Bowl era, about interracial marriage. My wife is white, and something like that wouldn’t be legal 100 years ago in America.” He also depicted the invention of chop suey, using it to illustrate the xenophobia associated with Asian cuisine. “A lot of these stories are very meaningful and very personal to who I am as an Asian American, and I’m extremely proud of being able to inject these narratives into the video game world.”
Developers Need Help to Create Innovative, Thought-Provoking Games
Z hopes Land of Screens will also have an impact on players, and can encourage them to make changes in their lives. “As Socrates said in one of his famous quotes which I love: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’” In the case of Land of Screens, he wants players to think about their relationship with social media and the amount of screen time that has become commonplace, and to consider whether this is the right approach. In an industry more to revenue generation through yearly titles, loot boxes, and microtransactions, Z believes games can move more toward this sort of mind-expanding output.
“For us, it’s always about, at the end of the day, what kind of story are we telling? Is it something that’s timeless and could be told over and over again, and someone could play this and walk away with a meaningful expansion of their personal horizons, so they can become a better person in their own way? Those are the games that really excite us, and the projects we always focus on.”
Z, whose influences include narrative-driven titles such as Gone Home and the library of Supergiant Games, believes the industry will only be able to make this transition with the help of consumers. “Money from the individual is what shapes our industry, and if you want to see a better future, if you want to see more meaningful content being created… start spending money on this. Start buying it, start supporting them on social media, and other forms of support.”
However, he also understands the industry will need to help remove the many barriers preventing this. “Being able to buy a video game costs money, and not everyone in the world can afford that, and not a lot of people have the financial freedom in order to be exposed to video games,” he said. “There’s also the hardware that you need: you need a Nintendo Switch to play some stuff, you need a gaming PC, at the very least you need a smartphone, but smartphones also don’t have access to a lot of very valuable games out there, which could make a meaningful impact to society.”
As the gaming industry matures, fans of intelligent, thought-provoking games can look forward to more output from forward-thinking developers like Serenity Forge. They won’t have to wait long for Land Of Screens, which releases on Christmas Day.
Land Of Screens releases on December 25, 2021 for PC and Switch.