KWAAN

Entrant 2016


CREATOR
Ankama Canada

Description

KWAAN is a different kind of MMORPG. Although it retains some traditional features of the genre (experience points, skills, servers, quests), it is before all an ecosystem, in which the players will have to work together in order to maintain peace, harmony and life. KWAAN is pacifist, spiritual and non-gendered - although it softly challenges our institutionalized binary systems. KWAAN replaces combat, consummation and destruction with meditation, sharing and creation.

The game features a complete non-scripted pollution system that players can use or get rid of, depending on their priorities. KWAAN also proposes a range of automated, ritualized daily tasks, a lot of free-spaces to draw, organize and communicate, and a de-linearized narrative based on contexts. The whole game is an experience, to be shared either as a life simulator - or as a personal storyquest. We are trying to address the problem of designing a sustainable model for full cooperative online adventures games, games that are as much emergent as they are "written".

Started as an experiment for a cognitive science laboratory in France, Kwaan is made by David Calvo and Maxime Plantady, working as an indie duo in Montreal, published by Ankama in France. The team is completed by Eric Léveillée and Mathieu Giguère. Two freelance artists are working with us remotely, Gary Lucken from England as art direction, and David Kanaga from Oakland as composer. The development is very informal, and we base a lot of our planning on the feedback from the community. We are not obsessed with process : we like to do what we do in a permanent state of happiness, and be surprised.


Video