BONAPARTE: A MECHANIZED REVOLUTION

No sooner have we stepped into the boots of royal guard Bonaparte than we’re faced with a life-altering decision.

An army of workers advances on the Bastille: do we repel them or defect and join their cause? Vive la révolution, we decide, and switch sides. It’s a choice that reflects real events in 1789, according to Jongwoo Kim, creative director of Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution. “It felt like a pivotal and symbolic moment for the game to begin and directly confront players with the choices around the revolution,” he says. “Who do you side with? Why do you do it? And how far will you go?”

Counterfactual history makes for fascinating thought experiments and, for Kim, revolutions are especially fertile soil. Prior to entering game development (previously at Kitfox, before co-founding Studio Imugi), at university he majored in history and was drawn to those moments of rapid change when the unexpected becomes possible. Not least the French Revolution, which led to various forms of government – constitutional monarchy, republic, empire – with the future of the nation in the balance. “It captures that idealistic spirit of making the country a better place,” Kim says, “and a genuine desire to make that happen.” Even if, he adds, “the execution very much misses the mark.”