Beeswing dev's Dujanah mixes Islam, Metroid, mechs

You might know Jack King-Spooner for his lovely, autobiographical Beeswing, set in the titular town in rural Scotland. He's heading a bit further afield for his next game, Dujanah, a magical realist game "set in a fictional Islamic majority country that has an occupying military force". You're a woman named Dujanah, and you don't like that occupying force very much, leading to "various moral, psychological and political dilemmas".

If you think it sounds a bit dry, you're almost certainly wrong, as this still appears to be a Jack King-Spooner game through and through. The people and sets are mostly made out of clay, while Dujanah herself appears to travel around with a ruddy great mech. The story, like Beeswing's, will be a non-linear one, enhanced this time by various "randomised elements". And, if you wanted more 'game' in Beeswing, you'll be pleased to hear of Dujanah's in-game arcade, which among other things features a "metroid-like" platformer named Caves of Al Dajjal.

Visually, I think King-Spooner's come on a long way, too. There are some lovely, glitchy visual effects going on in Dujanah.

If you want to see Dujanah happen, you could always fling a few bob at the ongoing Kickstarter, which has raised just shy of £2,000 of its £6,000 goal.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.