11 Bit Studios' harrowing side-scrolling survival game, This War of Mine, turns ten years old today. And to mark the occasion, 11 Bit has unveiled Forget Celebrations, a new charity DLC launching as part of the game's continuing “mission to shine a light on the civilian cost of war.”
“Innocent lives continue to be lost on battlefields, new conflicts are emerging, weapons production increases to meet the demands of war, and civilians and soldiers continue to face unimaginable brutality,” the studio writes in its Forget announcement. Celebrations. “With the world bleeding, we believe it is vital to keep pushing for change.”
In Forget Celebrations, 11 Bit returns once again to the fictional war-torn town of Pogoren, this time to tell the story of Katia, an experienced war correspondent. “As she struggles to write a book about the brutal realities of war,” the studio explains, “a missile attack devastates her home, forcing her into an even harder fight for survival and the recovery of the gathered material.”
11 Bit hasn't yet announced a release date or price for This War of Mine's Forget Celebrations DLC (and it's only confirmed for Steam so far), but it says all of the studio's profits will be donated to its charity partners: War Child , Amnesty. International, Liberty Ukraine and Indie Games Poland, with the “hope of helping those affected by the current wars.”
This War of Mine has received high praise since its release in 2014, appearing at the Imperial War Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was officially added to the Polish school curriculum in 2022, and was even awarded a Special Recognition Award by Amnesty International earlier this year for its “continued relevance in portraying the harsh realities faced by civilians in conflict zones” and as a “powerful reminder of the crucial importance of international humanitarian law in protecting civilian lives in areas of armed conflict, citing current situations in various regions of the world.”
In his review of This War of Mine in 2015, former Eurogamer editor-in-chief Martin Robinson wrote: “[Its] The simple message – that war is hell and that we are all capable of being absorbed by its moral depths – might be slightly compromised by its strengths as a game, but at least it's a message delivered with far more conviction than others. more grandiose representations of the conflict. That, without a doubt, is something we should be grateful for.”