Paintbucket Games

Founded in 2018 and the recipient of numerous awards, the studio represents a bold new generation of German indie studios that prioritise social relevance in the development of their titles. Their debut, Through the Darkest of Times, marked a milestone in the emancipation of games as a cultural medium through the first-ever application of the so-called ‘social adequacy clause’ to a game. But that is not the only reason it became a favourite of the arts pages and made it into the New York Times. In terms of quality, too, the constantly growing, diverse team led by the founding duo – who come from a background in triple-A game development – delivers outstanding work.

As part of the Berlin-based Saftladen Indie collective, Paintbucket Games is just as passionate about supporting the scene and its up-and-coming talent as it is about remembrance work, which it supports through numerous projects and collaborations – including with concentration camp memorial sites – as well as by visiting schools.

The recently completed app Departure Neuaubing serves as an unusual format for documenting Nazi crimes: an interactive game created for the NS Documentation Centre in Munich that chronicles the suffering of forced labourer Jan Bazuin.

The DCP Jury 2022