Silent Enemy is a Fearless Game About Bullying

"You cannot bring someone to someplace you haven't been yourself."

Vander Caballero, the founder of Minority Media and lead on 2012's emotional journey Papo & Yo, said these words to me a few weeks ago, and I can't seem to shake them. The thought was in reference to Silent Enemy, the studio's upcoming game that combines a fantastical setting with a handful of deeply moving themes -- things our medium has rarely had the courage to explore.

Silent Enemy is set in the land of Permanent Winter which, as you can probably guess, has been blanketed by centuries of frost. All manner of creatures, whether man or beast, struggle to survive through the harsh times, save for the crows. Those sly tufts of black plumage embrace the cold and prey upon the rest of us who have to suffer through Winter. There are legends of a thing called Spring, but no one really believes in the fairy tales of those halcyon days.

This is what Silent Enemy is about, but it's not really what it's about.

Yes, you play as a boy who roams the tundra collecting spirits and using them to freeze rivers, push obstacles, and inhabit the bodies of smaller animals. But much like Papo & Yo, which just recently made it's way to Steam, the core mechanics lead to a very real story that's rooted deep inside its creators. Instead of Papo's story of Vander's relationship with his alcoholic father, Silent Enemy is very much a product of Minority's design director Ruben Farrus. As a child growing up in Spain, Farrus had to suffer through years of bullying that left him physically and emotionally scarred for decades. He confesses that he still wakes up in the middle of the night wrapped in nightmares of decades-old bullying.

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You can't use a mushroom to grow and simply stomp out your worries.

The crows that stalk the wasteland and prey on the helpless creatures are the specters that haunt Farrus' nightmares. (By the way, if all of this is sounding quite Game of Thrones-y to you, you’re not alone.) You can't directly combat the foes, because Vander and the team at Minority Media doesn't believe that violence is the solution to bullying. As he puts it, "You can't use a mushroom to grow and simply stomp out your worries." In fact, they're not sure whether the phenomenon of bullying can be solved at all. What they want to do is tell a story that shows that things get better, and marry that narrative with therapeutic game mechanics.

It was refreshing to see Silent Enemy in its current, uncertain state. The footage Minority showed off was clearly in an alpha stage. Vander and his team are honest when they say that they're not 100% sure of where the game is heading. They have a rich theme, interesting world and some solid mechanics, but are still far away from completion. I can't help but respect them for their earnestness.

Those crows look like jerks.

Interestingly enough, Minority hasn't decided on a platform for Silent Enemy. The team is currently prototyping the game using an Ouya controller, and they've really taken a fancy to the touchpad delivery method of control. It would make sense for it to hit on iOS, but they've also expressed interest in PC and next-gen consoles as well.

Silent Enemy continues Minority Media's unspoken goal to creating games that act as a form of therapy. They're bringing us to dark place that they've been to before. Though it's still in its early phases, it's nevertheless an idea that immediately demanded my attention for the simple fact that it dares to go places that few games ever tread. Through Papo & Yo and now Silent Enemy, it's clear that Vander and the team at Minority Media set out to make games about themselves, but unbeknownst to them, also succeed in making games about us.

Marty Sliva is an Associate Editor at IGN. He really loves it when a game has the courage to be completely earnest. Follow him on Twitter @McBiggitty and on IGN.