It’s far from uncommon for games to have a social element to them, with the developers aiming to help players navigate a range of social issues.  For instance, I wrote a few years ago about a game called Fort McMoney, which invites players to explore the town, connecting up with various people from across the oil industry, environmental activists and residents of the town.  Through this process, the player gains an understanding of the environmental, social and economic concerns of the town and the townsfolk.

Perhaps one of the most pressing issues of the current time, in Britain at least, is the Brexit process of leaving the European Union.  Could Not Tonight help?  It’s a game that explores the post-Brexit world as players take the role of a foreign bouncer working in a Britain with increased levels of xenophobia.

A social message

As with so many games of this nature, it is driven very much by the concerns of its creator, who himself has had concerns over his status in Britain after the vote to leave the European Union.

Players take on the role of a nightclub doorman who has just lost his British nationality.  This has forced him to a range of menial jobs by the government who don’t want unemployed migrants in the country.  And so the protagonist is moved into the gig economy, where he works as a ‘bouncer’ where he has to perform checks on other characters to determine whether they should, or should not, be allowed into the country.

The game has had some strong early success, and was in the top 10 bestsellers on the Stream platform over the first weekend of its release, with most reviews towards the positive end of the spectrum.  As with the nature of the topic however, there were some who didn’t approve, presumably of the message as much as the gameplay itself.

“It’s all rather distracting with how in your face it all is while at the same time not really saying anything other than…..what? British people are evil and xenophobic?” one reviewer says.

Such a risk of polarization is something the developers have been willing to tackle head on however, not least because it has been such a divisive process that it’s almost impossible to tackle the topic without dividing opinion.  It was not his intention to necessarily change people’s mind, but he did nonetheless hope to provoke a degree of thought about the potential implications.

The team behind the game are only too aware of these implications, as the Polish graphics designer on the team has moved back to Poland from Britain as a result of the uncertain status since the vote to leave the EU.

The game is currently available on PC and is set to be released on various consoles in 2019, just in time for the official leave date.