Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson have released their insightful and intensely satirical gamebook Can You Brexit? It’s up to you to undertake the difficult negotiations of separation, where you not only have to deliver a workable Brexit as you manage ongoing domestic affairs, but you have to hold onto power while doing so! Can you rise above all the lies, hyperbole, egos and political manoeuvrings to bring about a Brexit that doesn’t break the UK – and your career?
Dave Morris spoke to GBN about this new project, explaining the reasons why this tale about the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union works as interactive fiction:
How do you keep track of a complicated subject like Brexit? One politician says one thing, another says the opposite. The stream of assertion and counter-assertion soon becomes overwhelming. No wonder many people threw up their hands and just made an emotional decision.
The only way to get your head around something as huge, complex and multi-stranded as Brexit is to experience it for yourself. Games allow you to see the consequences of each choice you make. They let you experiment with counterfactuals and weigh up conflicting goals. They let you discover the true picture for yourself.
Jamie and I spent more than a year getting this book right. We’ve been boning up on economic forecasts, talking to experts, reading whopping great select committee reports that would break your toe if you dropped them. We used a core turn-based structure that should interest gamebook designers – and of course Jamie, who’s a Roald Dahl Funny Prize winner, brought his distinctive brand of humour to the whole thing. So it’s hopefully thought-provoking but funny and nail-bitingly tense too.
Can You Brexit? is currently available from Amazon (UK and US).
What’s the combat system like? 😉
If it’s true to life it would have to include name calling, handbags and sniping from a very long distance!
It has at least a bit of _political murder_ and intrigue in it 🙂