My Memory of Us is a game about the friendship between a young boy and girl, set in a Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Poland during the Second World War. Developer Juggler Games says it will be "a truly unique, emotional" game, taking place during "times of terror, pain, and exclusion in a world where people were forced to live in two artificially detached worlds." But because it's told from the perspective of children, it also features bizarrely-anthropomorphic machines, robotic Nazis, and a visual style that's highly reminiscent of Disney shorts from the '20s and '30s.
"Children have their own way of thinking. Good, evil, and human relations—they have completely different perceptions of these subjects than adults. They also have something we, as grown-ups, are missing—a natural ability to focus on things that bring us together," the studio said. "This includes when brutal reality tries to test them. This is the story Juggler Games wants to tell."
"Inspiration" comes from the Second World War, and there will be references to real-world people and events. "But at the same time, the story told in the game could have happened in a different time and a different place," Juggler explained. And while "This War of Mine-meets-Steamboat Willie" is a potentially risky approach to an obviously sensitive subject, the studio is handling the game very seriously.
"My Memory of Us is in fact a tribute to our loved ones. We wanted to tell their stories to the world, about their tough childhood experiences; about their nostalgia, their longing for real friendship, and about together opposing the great danger that is war," creative director Jakub Jabłoński said.
"One day the Evil King simply changed all the rules. He segregated people—some were marked as better, others as worse. He created his own rules and harshly punished anyone who was brave enough to oppose him. Our protagonists don’t agree to this new way of things, to the terror of the tyrant and his army of robots. They decide to find their own paths in this gloomy, yet fascinating world."
Players will control both characters, each of whom has unique abilities, either individually or as a pair to overcome various logic puzzles and interact with other in-game characters through a pictographic dialog system. And despite the grim setting, it looks absolutely gorgeous, as you can see in the screens below. But the story, about "friendship, social exclusion, [and] selflessness," is what the experience will ultimately hinge on. Hopefully it can live up to the promise of the visuals.
My Memory of Us doesn't have a release date, but you can find out more at mymemoryofus.com.
Update: The post originally described My Memory of Us as taking place in "a Jewish ghetto in Poland." At the request of the developers, it's been changed to specify that the ghetto is in "German-occupied Poland."
