Onto Maizilind Unto Infinity

Onto Maizilind Unto Infinity is a 3 act game about the end of human civilization and the torment that consumes humanity on the other side of our long-awaited apocalypse. 

Act I: Destruction's Wake imagines an alternate reality where the United States unexpectedly dropped atomic bombs on Tehran in the year 1979, on the day of my Uncle Ramin's untimely birth and death. Through the eyes of Sara Ghobadi, players will witness a surreal retelling of the fall of the Imperial Government of Iran, a collapse that was set in motion by US intrusion at the dawn of the Cold War. The events unfold in first-person, building to a climactic moment of universal consciousness and ultimate doom.

Inextricably linked to the traumas of history is the tragedy of family separation. Ramin's parents died suddenly in a car accident when he was just 10 years old. Even after his flight to the US, along with many other members of my family, he never recovered from this loss. In August 2015, at the age of 35, he took his own life. The horror that this game portrays spawns from his death and the demons that still surround him in the afterlife. It asks a simple question: What would have happened if he was born just 20 years earlier? 

Even further, it asks what would happen if the looming threat of US imperialist invasion of Iran was realized. After the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the possibility of war briefly became obvious for Americans and Iranians alike. This would not be a war waged by the American people, but instead by their indifference to the most corrupt, evil, and destructive military industrial complex on the planet. Based on the precedents set by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq (and the numerous other conflicts in the "Middle East"), we can no longer claim innocence, nor can we excuse ourselves from what is to come. If we do not bring about revolutionary change in our society, there is nothing left but to wait shamefully for the end of civilization. Thus, perhaps inevitably, we arrive at Act III: Eremocene, the Age of Loneliness.

In the words of Schiller:

"Ruhe, das höchste Glück auf Erden,

kommt sehr oft nur durch Einsamkeit in das Herz.

Die Liebe kennt nichts,

Sie kennt weder Tür noch Riegel

und dringt durch alles sich.

Sie ist von Anbeginn,

schlug ewig ihre Flügel

und wird sie schlagen - ewiglich

~~~~~~~

Peace, the highest happiness on earth,

quite often comes only through solitude within the heart.

Love knows nothing,

it knows neither door nor latch

and permeates through everything.

It has existed from the very beginning,

endlessly beating its wings

and it will beat them – forever"

WARNING: This game contains scenes of intense terror, bombing, death, nuclear warfare, depictions of suicide, and disorienting and overwhelming visuals and spatialized audio. If you have a history of depression, suicidal ideation, seizures, panic attacks, PTSD, or related conditions, proceed with immense caution. Discretion is advised.

With original music from Citizens' Loft Records, and tracks by Kourosh Yaghmai, Anna Meredith,  Deru, and Schiller.

An enormous thank you to Julián Palacios Gechtman and the folks at eremo for helping to develop the art and produce the game over these last years.

You can watch my talk from GDC's Experimental Game Workshop in 2023 here called At War with Reality. 

OMUI was nominated for AMAZE 2023's Digital Moment award. The talk I gave there about Iran's history and how it connects to the personal history that gave way to the game is available to watch on their YouTube channel.