Remembering the Gulag with a Walking Simulator

Video games have evolved from being a purely entertainment outlet to becoming a serious storytelling medium. By immersing players in interactive worlds, video games represent a vehicle for reconstructing and retelling historical events in a captivating way, engaging players and connecting them more vividly with historical heritage. In this work, we present the current state of development for the video game Gulag Diaries, a walking simulator recounting the stories of people incarcerated in forced labour camps throughout the Soviet era, as well as the memories of the people who uncovered those stories.