Hello everyone! We are a two brother team who live Sofia, Bulgaria. Yes, the literal City 17 from Half-Life 2. We are making a game inspired by the book Obedience to Authority as well as media such as Papers, Please and the show Severance.

Here in Eastern Europe we have experience and past with harsh authority and authoritarianism. I mean look at our oppressive leftover architecture and forgotten symbols of authority. I guess the subject has always interested me... "Why do good people follow evil orders?"

What ever prejudice some media might have against people in Eastern Europe, I assure you we are some of the hardest working and welcoming people you will ever meet! And our game explores if you obey orders and how does your moral compass work (if at all). I invite you to wishlist it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2719670/The_Milgram_Experiment/

Good luck with this! I'm always excited to play games that try something different. I wish listed this.

Oh thank you so much! Yeah, I hope it doesn't get AI cloned since it's mostly about the story, narrative and player choices!

I don't know if you remember but I tested the demo a while back. I'm looking forward to seeing the final game. Congratulations for all you've accomplished.

why does this game give you a crack addiction

No. I bought Gods Will Be Watching, got halfway through and just couldn't handle it anymore. Twice.

But good luck with your game. Sounds interesting!

Yes, I miss games that don't treat you like a child with a short attention span.

I play games to escape, not to highlight reality, so no, I would not play a game like that. I stopped playing Witcher 3 because of the moral ambiguity in many quests.

Already tried to play it before and it kept crashing :(
Willing to give it a second try, tho :D fingers crossed

The best games do that constantly. It’s part of their storyline to test your morals and ethics in difficult situations.

Ever play any of the Fallout games? Or Cyberpunk 2077? A big part of each of those games is discovering “who you are” as a character. What living in that world means to you, and what you will do, how far you will go, to survive it.

It’s one of the hallmarks of an excellent game

I still think about Papers Please after almost ten years. I won't play it again but it left a mark. I will play your game too. Looks dope! Congratulations!

Anticommunist game? No thanks.

Thought this was related to The Belko Experiment, which I didn’t like very much. I hope others don’t make the same mistake. Good luck with yours!

In life, I think the answer to your question is each evil order is small, but exponential. If you want to illustrate this in a story, you might need to show it through many perspectives (either different characters or one character advancing through the roles). The pipeline could be something like transcribing orders, delivering letters, repeating the words to soldiers, then finally following those insteuctions. It makes each step feel more digestible, and easier to separate yourself from the evil.

Supporting pipelines like keeping soldiers fed, making armour/vehicles, or even boosting morale and comraderie, all contribute to the completion of the evil orders, but are good intentions when isolated.

Much like your examples, in Papers, Please you’re just stamping papers; In Severance, each pawn doesn’t know the big picture.

Anyway, wishing you both lots of success. Congratulations on getting this far, and I hope you can keep going if this is your passion.

LOL.

• "We are from Eastern Europe and have more experience than most on the oppressive history of the comminist regime."
• "Anti-communist? No thanks"

I read an article once that argued that the Milgram experiment is universally misunderstood.

(in Psych101 they'll tell you that the experiment proves that people will harm each other by being obedient to authority. A person in a lab coat is the authority in this case. people obeyed the lab-coat guy like 95% of the time)

In the years between the experiment becoming famous and it being banned by ethical boards, many variations on the experiment were tried. Most interesting was a variation where the lab-coat guy was replaced by a police or army guy. In these experiments, the willingness of the participants flipped. With 90+% of the participants refusing to obey. This strongly suggests that what was compelling about the lab-coat guy was not authority after all.

The article argued that the difference was people thought of the lab-coat guy as science and their participation wasn't obedience to authority, but rather a sense of duty to the greater good. (culture regarded scientists and science very differently in the 50s & 60s).

The Milgram experiment was a whole genre of psychological study I'll call "why Nazi". I think the idea that people will obey authority even when it's evil is much less scary than the idea that your every-day Nazi thought he was helping; thought that a few wicked deeds now would lead to the best future for the most people.

Yes, I play Rimworld, the unnessecary amputation simulator where it's ok to turn defiant slaves into fuel in a bioreactor as long as nobody sees you doing it, and nobody needs to ask how I have a dog leather couch.

I think Frostpunk is a bit like this

Yeah, eastern Europeans have some of the most ahistorical, anticommunist political views on the planet. That one would make a game celebrating anticommunism is not surprising. It's just pathetic.

Looks right up my alley. I'll definitely be checking it out.

I hate playing "IRL" How can I safely uninstall

How can I uninstall this?

I think the fallout and cyberpunk both had some of those great moments of exploring morality. But in my opinion, the Witcher 2 & 3 do it better than any other games I've played.

Rather than spoiling the story with specific examples, I'll just say this: these games thrive in the grey zone, it's where they live. And you'll often find yourself making decisions you really didn't expect to make or seriously regretting the choice you just committed to.

Edit: now that I've said that, I think the banner saga also deserves a mention. That game has some hard decisions and often, some seriously dark outcomes.

No. Games are meant to be enjoyed recreationally as an escape. Not spent tiptoeing though a psychological minefield of “here’s another thing to test your guilt-reflexes…”

Ffs…

Well that's just like, your opinion, man.

I find games to be a very good medium for all kinds of storytelling and experiences, just like TV shows can be vapid sitcoms or serious dramas or anything else.

Well, that’s just your opinion man. I’m all about kids having positive experiences from games, not self-doubt after having their head fucked with…

But you do you! Celebrate the differences!

You're the one saying "this kind is bad", how's that for "celebrating differences"?

What's your opinion on games in the horror genre?

If they’re not fucking with people’s heads?

You don’t seem to understand sarcasm.

That's only your taste, it doesn't apply to everyone as you clearly imply in your comment, learn how to write your own opinion instead of talking for everyone else.

You are selling this right, kinda too much good for my taste with these SEO, but anyway, seems like a game I would play so I'll wishlist!

Maybe you’re just not emotionally intelligent to play things that may better you as a person.

Honey… this game isn’t being marketed to kids. Get fucking real.

hey friend, the link you posted works (and I've wish listed) but for some reason typing in the name of the game did not return any results for me until after I clicked your link and wishlisted there. it could be a problem on my end somehow but it might also be worth looking into.

good luck with the release!

I played the demo and it's a lot of fun. I still fully believe that painless execution of the driver is the correct choice for Test 2.

No. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Sweetheart, kids play games regardless of marketing.

Steam -> Library -> Milgram Demo -> cog icon above "Notes" -> Manage -> Uninstall

or you can use the uninstall method of your OS (IIRC, for Windows it's Programs -> Uninstall, for Linux you might need to look it up... but if you're using Linux, you probably don't need advice for this :P)

You’re adorable… wrong, but adorable

LMAO! the obnoxious arrogance is almost unbearable! You seriously think kids don’t play games that are age restricted????

Talk about adorable.

Blocked. I’m not even going to deal with this nonsense.

Are there horror games that are trying to fuck with your head? The entire genre is trying to manipulate your emotions into feeling fear or dread.

The Witcher games are pretty fucking great

That's a psychological horror of a different color

The fact you said blocked and then didn’t block me 🤣🤣🤣🤣

The Milgram angle fits games really well, because the player already comes in trained to do whatever the interface tells them. Papers, Please worked because the rulebook itself was the authority, and you only noticed what you'd been doing when it was too late. Curious how you handle players who refuse from the very first order: does the game let that be a real ending?

if you can remember any details about the police or army experiments, I'd be grateful!