Thanks everyone for helping to back the project - Despite not meeting the funding goals, I'm making good progress on the game, and hope to have a finished prototype by the end of the year. I will update more soon on the state of the game's design - I've just been swamped with other work and making time to work on The Unconcerned. But rest assured it will be made - currently I'm aiming to be done in the fall of next year.

If you're interested in being on the playtest list send me an email at borut_p@yahoo.com (backers whose email addresses I have don't need to do that). The first playtests are still many months away, but I want to make sure I get all the addresses for anyone interested.

Borut

Just wanted to let folks know that I'll be doing an interview with Alex Champandard this weekend on his excellent game AI website, http://aigamedev.com - we'll be talking about designing and prototyping independent games. Unfortunately I believe it's only for subscribers to the site, but since some of you might have become aware of this project through my participation in the game AI community, you may be member & want to check it out. It's a live interview that takes place 2pm PST on Sunday (Oct. 25th). The video will be available a little while afterwards in case you miss it. For more info go here: http://aigamedev.com/premium/event/session-indie-prototyping/

Work on the project is moving at a steady pace. After my first set of prototype levels, I now have a more concrete set of mechanics that I'm happy with, which I'm about to start building. I've gotten my first few responses back from interviewees (people that have been in Iran recently, some right around the time of the election), which has been very helpful. I've also made some progress on the storyline and potential endings - it's not complete but it's definitely helped me flesh out the mechanics.

I'll be posting some more detailed results of my prototyping to those who have pledged for behind-the-scenes access. Thanks again to everyone for pledging!

You know, I'll be honest, I've always been a little wary of official charitable organizations, for fear that your donations are going to fund some office bureaucrat's afternoon naps. Thankfully in the age of the internet, financial records and more are available to those who are interested.

So with that, I'm happy to declare that 5% of royalties from sales of the game will be donated to two charities:

Children of Persia, an organization that provides health care, education, and social services to Iranian children in need: http://www.childrenofpersia.org/index.html

Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, which aims to record and educate about human rights abuses in Iran, to encourage a culture of human rights within Iranian society: http://www.iranhrdc.org/httpdocs/index.htm

At least 5% of royalties will be charitably donated to those two organizations, possibly more depending on what I can afford based on the cost of development and relative success of the game.

I don't necessarily think any creative work, whether it's a game, music, movie, or book, can directly bring about change for the social good. They can educate, inform, and inspire - those are powerful things that, when successful, can motivate people to act, but only in that indirect fashion. Yet at least in some way, through this donation, I hope this game can do a little bit of both.

Well, it's very early on in the project, as I split my time between working on this and contract work. But, I figured might be interesting to talk a little bit my creative process at this stage of the project.

Please keep in mind the snippets of the game you see are totally placeholder, they are merely for me to test functionality as I refine the design of the game.

This update is available for everybody to learn more about the project, but as I go forward working on the project, they'll be restricted to backers and some will only be for those who pledged for the behind the scenes reward.

Thanks again to everybody for their interest!
Borut

Coming up with titles for any work is difficult, for me at least. Right now the working title of the game is "The Unconcerned" from this quote by the 13th century Persian poet Saadi (as translated by Dr. Iraj Bashiri):‎

Of One Essence is the Human Race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base.
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace.
The Unconcerned with Others' Plight,
Are but Brutes with Human Face.