Abdullah Karam is a gamer who used to live in Syria, but when the war destabilized the country it was time to hightail it and find a place where he could play his video games in peace. This real-life event led Karam through a series of life-or-death situations as he ventured to get out of the country and become a refugee. After getting out of the country in real life, Karam formed Causa Creations and decided to make an RPG based on his harrowing journey out of a war zone in order to get some place safe so he could get back to playing vidya.

In the press release Abdullah Karam, the writer and graphic artist for the game Path Out, mentioned…

“I think autobiographical games are not as common as films or books but as a big gamer it just felt like the right way to tell my story” […] “Hopefully players will appreciate seeing the start of the war in Syria from another perspective and understand better what it was like to escape your home as a young man.”

Path Out sees gamers using stealth and various non-combat related antics to make their way through Syria as it becomes less and less safe, and more and more dangerous. There’s a trailer below that gives you an idea of how they approached the art and design of the game.

According to the press release the art-style was inspired by the 16-bit SNES classics, mid-east art, and
Syrian culture. A small slice of something different.

Now the game is available for free over on the Steam store. You don’t have to pay a time to play it.

However, the game is already courting some controversy because it quotes the very controversial Rami Ismael, who has been known to support bullying tactics, is a quick way to get some gamers to steer clear of the project.

Some of the feedback on the trailers also reflects how people feel about the ongoing Syrian conflict and refugees in general. A few were happy that a game was made to highlight what it was like being a refugee attempting to escape Syria. Some felt that Path Out was a CIA-funded psyop to help normalize refugees coming to America and Europe. Others were simply angry that the game was made in RPG Maker.

The Steam reviews and discussion threads over on the store page are just barely coming in at the moment and it will take a while to get a feel for how gamers themselves will react to Path Out once they’ve played it, but it’s one of those games themed after real-life events, and so there’s bound to be some controversy attached.

If Path Out is popular enough Causa Creations has plans on showing Abdullah’s journey through Turkey, Greece and eventually how he made it to Central Europe.