Overview

Letters from the War is a modern reimagining of text adventure games with a new gameplay based on postal censorship during Second World War. The player takes the role of a newly hired employ of the Censorship Authority, where his actions will impact on the future of the nation.

The game takes place in Vitulia, a fictional country involved in Second World War. An authoritarian regime rules in Vitualia, which controls the masses thanks to its supervision on public information.

Preproduction and References for the game

During the preproduction, I was strongly inspired by Papers, Please (by Lucas Pope) and The Contrarian Press (by Joyce Zhang, Audrey Renouf, Adrian Ma, Weiwen “Andy” Jiang, Will Ozeas, and Scott King).

My idea was to combine a Contrarian Press-like gameplay with a mood similar to the one of the work of Lucas Pope.

Gameplay

The gameplay mainly consists in the act of censoring sentences in letters coming from the front. The difference between this and the gameplay I took inspiration from is that I leave the player free to censor whatever he wants.

The player has to understand what the boss wants from him and then decide what to censor. The decision is influenced by multiple tensions: what should I censor not to be fired? How can I make people understand the content of the letters? Do I want them to understand it?

I crafted each letter writing more and less relevant information. The least relevant information does not make people understand the situation more, but if censored it undermines the intelligibility of the letter and gets the player fired. The most relevant one makes people understand the letter, but they should be censored if the player wants to keep his job.

A strategy may be to censor the most relevant information to make a good impression on the boss, but leave some hints here and there to make the people understand what is really happening.

Narrative Design

I wrote two narrative lines that are going to meet at the end of the game: what is happening at the front and what is happening inside the country.

The stories coming from the front are narrated through the letters written by different soldiers; the soldiers are of different ranks and they have different points of view on the war. I have written the letters having the real correspondence of WWI and WWII as a reference.

The story inside the country changes based on player actions and is narrated through the newspaper and the words of the boss.

In the end the two story lines reconnect with the enemy army crossing the borders and occupying the city, after the soldiers deserted. This happens in every playthrough but player decisions can change how people will react to this: the may know what is really happening and insurrect against the oppressive government or be disoriented by the occupation.

Music

I worked with Tiziano Bonsignore to compose the original soundtrack. We wanted a track for the main menu and one for the gameplay that could give a sensation of authority and dystopia. The first soundtrack listened by the player is more ethereal with voices, but as soon as the game starts the music becomes harsher introducing more percussion that reminds a martial rhythm.

Our main reference during the composition still was the “Papers, Please: Theme Song” (by Lucas Pope).