In contrast to high-budget, mainstream, military games (such as the Call of Duty series) This War of Mine shows war from the perspective of a group of civilians struggling for survival in a besieged city. It requires the player who controls them to make difficult choices and deal with shortages of food, medicine and other goods, as well as constant threats such as snipers hiding among the debris, hostile looters and the declining physical and mental health of the survivors. As the producer reported, the game was inspired by the events of Sarajevo in 1992.
The game is available in eight languages, including Polish, Russian, German and Spanish, with the full soundtrack released in English. Thanks to positive reviews from users (96% positive reviews out of 3500) the game has reached the top of the highest rated games and 12th place on Steam’s bestseller list, just behind Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
According to data on the game’s official Facebook fanpage, the production costs – not made public – were recouped in the two days after its release on 14th November 2014. The game has been bought by players from 92 countries with the largest group (one third of all buyers) being residents of the United States. In Europe, highest sales of TwoM were recorded in Russia, Germany and Great Britain. The average age of the players is from 25 to 34 years.
So far the game is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, but in 2015 a version for tablets will be also released. Due to the initial success of the electronic version distributed through Stream, on 5th December 2014 a bilingual (Polish and English) boxed version hit stores.
Source: PAP, ed.:TK, transl.: szm, December 2014