https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuGxgatcoNI

A lot of times you see video games foregoing “traditional” gameplay structure for a simple focus on the narrative, the thematic pieces, and so on. Indie developer Ektomarch is working on a new game that is both powerful in story, and also seemingly rooted in classic gaming.

Enter Aerannis, an open world action-adventure game where you play as Ceyda Farhi, a Bulgarian Turk, who also happens to be a trans woman. Farhi is an assassin currently employed in the metropolis of Plovdiv, a city that originally started as a paradise for ideologue feminists.

Plovdiv started as a refuge for women from around the world to escape to, where they could finally be free of the systemic oppression of the patriarchy. Soon after the mass exodus of women from around the world, society collapses, and Plovdiv is the last remaining city. However, things quickly get ugly.

Both government and private corporations begin hiring assassins to resolve their “problems”. After realizing how easy it has become to censor people, this underhanded method has become the replacement for due process. It’s seen as necessary.

The game is primarily furthered through taking on various assassination missions. While completing her jobs, Farhi begins to notice various strange coincidences between each contract. Following the shocking discovery of a mass conspiracy, Farhi wants to reveal the truth to the public.

The problem is that in Plovdiv, women are considered the status quo. Anything else—especially trans women—is not considered “whole”. How can Farhi alert everyone to the truth? How can she fight the corruption at hand, while she struggles with her own gender identity?

Indie developer Ektomarch is currently based out of Portland, OR, and originally hails from Pittsburgh, PA. Despite the intricately woven story, Aerannis is being touted as a fun and challenging 2D action game.

You’ll be able to sneak through areas utilizing varied methods of stealth, only to sneak up on your potential aggressors or targets, and take them down with a clean execution. You can even use people as hostages or human shields, in order to gain entrance to restricted areas, for example.

A Kickstarter campaign for Aerannis will be launching soon. We’ll keep you posted as to how this project progresses.