You'd think that, in the wake of last year's London riots, developers would be wary of making a game based on civil disturbance, even when you consider its a topic rarely covered by games anyway.
So it's nice to see Dot Product's upcoming Wildfire Worlds not only tackle the subject, but do it in a unique and interesting way.
Their game is all about mapping the spread of unrest, as players drop some "infected" people onto the streets then guide them around as they collect more and more followers. That's about it, but a great "papercraft" art style and differentiations in the cute mini-London being portrayed (there's more traffic and people on the streets at rush hour, for example) sound like it'll be wide open for experimentation.
"One of the original ideas was ‘I wanna be a disease and I want to infect the whole world.'", director James Boty tells Rock Paper Shotgun. "And various people have done that on global levels, like Pandemic but the thing is that it's not at this level. It's the model train set thing. We've all had that thing where you wanna fuck up your toys as a kid."
Apparently the game won't just feature civil disturbances, but the option to drop in zombies as well. Excellent.
First Look: Wildfire Worlds [Rock Paper Shotgun]
Wildfire Worlds [Official Site]