After a year of development and many years of fermentation, we are excited to announce the launch of the Twine version of Kai UnEarthed.  A full multimedia video game version is still in development and will be released as an open alpha.  More info can be found at https://www.kaiunearthed.com.  

Summary of the game

In an unpoliced future where everyone’s needs are met, teenagers receive energy tattoos, preparing to tend the wildness of a regrowing planet. But first, they must complete a coming-of-age ceremony that transports them back to their ancestors’ experiences in the Capitalist Era and its catastrophic final decades.

Play as Kai, a child of traumatized revolutionaries. Fall in love with your crush as you explore the ruins of a juvenile detention center. Decide how you will hold the pain of your elders and ancestors as you heal together. Learn how to touch the unknown webs of the artifacts you unEarth.

Kai UnEarthed is an interactive, branching story where you decide the outcome. It comes with an analog journal you can use to extend the game through your own rituals of tearing, scribbling, writing, drawing, imagining, and acting. A future version will feature 3D-rendered ritual spaces where you can practice meditation and critical consciousness.

Signs of the times: social movement roots and branches 

This will be one of many games rehearsing the abolition of police, prisons, and capitalism. As graffiti during the 2020 uprising prophesied, “another end of the world is possible.” We want to support young people in creating their own games to imagine the worlds they are building out of the ashes of the present one.

We started this project before the COVID19 pandemic and the 2020 rebellions for Black liberation.  At that time we were worried it might come across as too radical, but now after everything that's happened it seems right on time.   

Ideas for the story-world of the game have been fermenting since 2013, if not earlier.  One of the designers  taught at a high school re-engagement program in Seattle for ten years, where they collaborated with students and colleagues to address conflict and harm without oppressive punitive discipline policies.  They were also involved in Seattle’s movement to abolish the local juvenile detention center, e.g. working with the ARTifACTs collective to design interactive media projects at demonstrations against the jail. The worldbuilding of Kai UnEarthed emerged from these activities and conversations.  More details about this background, and full credits and acknowledgements to everyone involved can be found at https://www.kaiunearthed.com. 

Mentoring and design learning

This iteration of Kai UnEarthed emerged when we met each other in classes we took  with veteran designers Tracy Fullerton and Andreas Kratky at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts MFA program in Interactive Media and Games.  It was our final project for both classes, and we continued working on it afterwards.  It is also related to work one of the designers is doing as  part of their PhD studies in Education at USC.  We are thinking about how the game could be part of larger workshops where young people imagine worlds free from systems of oppression.  We want to support them in designing their own games to try to make those worlds realities.  

Help us build

The interactive narrative is complete, but the multimedia version of the game will be released in a state of intentionally indefinite open alpha. It will be a complete sequence of gameplay, but will need polishing. We are a small team with limited resources, and we will only have the capacity to polish it if more people collaborate with us. We need help with :

• 3D character modeling
• Music
• Sound Design
• Voice acting
• Quality assurance and usability testing
• Adding accessibility features like screen reading and button remapping

If you are interested, please email us at KaiUnearthed@gmail.com

Share the Experience

Here are some ways you can use Kai UnEarthed to build community:

1. Share

   the link to https://www.kaiunearthed.com on social media

2. Connect

   with us on Instagram @kaiunearthed or email us at KaiUnearthed@gmail.com; we welcome feedback on the game. 

3. Play

   the game with people in person or over a live video app, and compare the journals you create. Feel free to share what you create with us as well at KaiUnearthed@gmail.com.

4. Create

   media inspired by the game: stories, videos, music, other interactive works set in the UnEarthed cinematic universe, or create your own abolitionist games.

5. Embed

   the game in workshops, classes, or webinars on critical digital literacy, abolitionism, game design, etc. We are working on curricula around the game too, so let’s compare notes!

Check out these Resources

Click here for a FREE list of information related to the core themes of Kai UnEarthed: Abolitionism, Afrofuturism, Solarpunk. etc.

This is a work in progress; if  you have suggestions for resources to add, please email us at KaiUnearthed AT gmail.com (link).