MUNDAUN

Format PC, PS4, XBox One

Developer Hidden Fields

Publisher MWM Interactive

Origin Switzerland

Release 2021

This is a game of grey areas. Figuratively, in the mystery and cloudy morals of its horror-filled spaces, but also very literally, given that each of its vistas has been sketched in with pencil. Other games incorporate manual crafts into their aesthetic, from Plasticine models to paper cutouts, but Mundaun stands out because it finds the friction in this encounter. Its rural weave plays in the smudges between artisanal application and digital trickery, between everyday reality, whispered folklore and sheer fantasy.

It’s not surprising, then, that its creator has his feet planted in both old and new media. Michel Ziegler studied computer science and worked as a software engineer but, finding himself more and more attracted to the medium of comics, went back to university at the age of 25 to attain his second degree, in illustration. It was here that his crossover experiments began.

“My bachelor’s project started as a comic about a virtual world,” Ziegler says. To help realise the comic’s setting, he created a model of the world and its inhabitants in a game engine. The result captured his attention more than the, which in turn inspired him to create a full game.