Through the Darkest of Times

Publisher: HandyGames · Studio: Paintbucket Games · Creator: Jörg Friedrich, Sebastian Schulz

Anecdote

Designed by Berlin studio Paintbucket Games under the direction of Jörg Friedrich and Sebastian Schulz and published in January 2020, Through the Darkest of Times is the first German video game approved by the USK to officially use the swastika in a clearly anti-Nazi narrative context. The player leads a civilian resistance cell in Berlin from 1933 to 1945, beginning with five companions recruited shortly after the Reichstag fire. Director Jörg Friedrich, himself a trained historian, drew inspiration from the White Rose, the Red Orchestra and the Herbert Baum group to model the mechanics of unarmed resistance: distributing leaflets, subversive wall paintings, minor acts of sabotage, transporting fugitives, listening to the BBC. The turn-based system alternates between risky weekly activities and scripted historical events — the book burnings of 1933, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Kristallnacht in 1938, the deportation of Berlin's Jews in 1941, the failed assassination attempt against Hitler in 1944. The cell's morale and Gestapo attention both increase as actions escalate, and the death of beloved characters is permanent. A full playthrough lasts between five and ten hours. The stripped-back art direction, in Indian ink and monochrome wash, recalls the illustrations of Käthe Kollwitz and George Grosz. The soundtrack by composer Sebastian Knappe, blending piano and clarinet, punctuates intimate dramas. The title has been distributed in several German schools and benefits from an official memorandum from the Topography of Terror Foundation. It marks a historic milestone in the maturity of the medium in its engagement with Nazi memory.