This journal describes the artistic process resulting in four consecutive concept sketches. Descriptions of the concepts themselves, including discussions of their strengths and weaknesses, can be found under cloches on the kitchen table.
The NUMB project is a continued exploration of interactive storytelling and non-fiction that started with the project “My Child Lebensborn” – a mobile game that was launched in May 2018. The starting point for this artistic exploration journal needs to be the point at which that project ended.
The mobile game was part of a larger transmedia project that I designed while working on a documentary film about the Lebensborn children in Norway – children born to German soldiers and Norwegian women during World War II. When I met them, these children were in their mid-seventies, and they had harrowing stories to tell about bullying and abuse by Norwegians after the war.
Read more about CBOW and the resulting transmedia project and mobile game in the text “Lebensborn and Children Born of War” in the library.
Creating a mobile game with approximately five hours of play time is a lengthy process. The 3½ years we needed provided me with a thorough introduction to game design and the game development industry, thanks to a long and very fruitful creative collaboration with the game development team at Sarepta Studio and CEO/game designer Catharina Due Bøhler.
I worked closely with the Lebensborn while developing the game, to ensure that it would give a historically correct representation of their experiences. This involved a continuous search for gameplay that could demonstrate aspects of their stories, enabling us to avoid narration and text wherever possible. The goal was not primarily to create a game that informed the players, but one that caused them to feel and reflect.
