Holocaust Video Game Rejected by Nintendo Will Become Smartphone Game
The developer of a Holocaust-themed game which was rejected by Nintendo has announced plans to release his work for smartphone users.
British game developer Luc Bernard, 26, announced his plan on the website Indiegogo, a crowd-sourcing platform which helps developers and inventors find funding for their products.
Bernard made headlines in 2008 with his game “Imagination is the Only Escape,” which he developed for Nintendo and which looks at the events of the Holocaust through the eyes of a child.
The gaming giant eventually decided not to buy and market the game because it was deemed unfit for children, according to the New York Times.
Now Bernard said he would bypass corporations and raise funds online with a plan to release the game next year, according to a report by the news website The Verge.
Bernard’s mother is Jewish and her mother looked after orphaned Jewish children after World War II, he told the Times.
His game features the character of a young boy named Samuel during the Nazi occupation of France in 1942, who seeks to escape real life into his own fantasy world.
Bernard told The Verge that the game is meant to inspire players to read up on the history of the Holocaust.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO