Game developer explores colonialism through the eyes of a penguin

Key points

• Melbourne-based game developer Naphtali Faulkner has released Penguin Colony, a weird fiction game set in Antarctica in 1939. Published by Origame Digital, the game follows playable penguins who ignore the horrors caused by Nazi expeditions seeking eldritch forces.
• Faulkner says the game explores how colonial myth-making works, drawing on HP Lovecraft's stories while critiquing their racist assumptions.
• He also draws on Indigenous knowledge and respectful design principles, and favours a puzzle-driven approach in which players must work things out for themselves.