Mole Catcher
A downloadable game for Windows
You are transported back to 1973 Portugal, which is under the regime of a dictatorship. You are stationed in the small town of Óbidos as a revolutionary tasked with keeping check of who enters the village’s iconic theatre, which is home to a crucial meeting for the upcoming revolution, meant to overthrow the dictatorship! However, you are informed that moles are trying to infiltrate the meeting. It is your job to check documents and compare information to find out who the moles are!
The theme behind the cultural game jam was the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, and the jam was held in the town of Óbidos. That was a good opportunity to set the game in the town and highlight this aspect of the preparations for the revolution that has been overshadowed and is widely unknown. The main inspiration was the game Papers, Please, as that was the best format to show military artefacts and objects of that time and the grim and overwhelming pressure that was felt during the dictatorship. "Small nods to the time in which the game took place were the artistic choices in things like, for example, the character sprites, whose artistic direction was inspired by the colors and proportions used by famous Portuguese painters who lived through the dictatorship", says Maria Sequeira.
The game Mole Catcher was originally created by Team Ovo Estrelado, four young people who took part in the third Cultural Game Jam in Óbidos. Behind Team Ovo Estrelado are Cátia Nascimento, Maria Sequeira, Júlia Costa, Tiago Lourenço. Mole Catcher was later matured in collaboration with the game studio BATTLESHEEP, a game development studio based in Lisbon, Portugal.
Visit Mole Catcher on the EPIC-WE Resource Website for more info.
EPIC-WE is a Horizon Europe-funded project aiming to empower young people to participate in shaping European Culture and their own future by imagining, creating and exchanging cultural values and heritage through game-making. It focuses on exploring and developing new models for cultural collaboration, empowered participation, cultural processes and design kits for games through and for culture which can help establish culture hubs across Europe.
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