Montreal designer creating video game set in the October Crisis
A small Montreal video game company is developing a new game set during the 1970 October Crisis.
The company has received a boost of support through a Kickstarter campaign and is hoping to become the first local gaming company to focus entirely on storylines from Quebec.
Cauchemars d'Octobre is a first-person point-and-click game set in a working-class Montreal neighbourhood during the crisis when soldiers patrolled the streets searching for Quebec deputy premier Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross, who were kidnapped by the FLQ.
It is a period in Quebec history that game designer Olivier Leclaire finds fascinating.
"I'm attracted to what the average Quebecois was feeling during this time of fear," said Leclaire. "They didn't know if the police would come knock at their door at 2 a.m. the next day to take them away. It was a time of fear, and my goal is to represent this fear through horror symbolism."
In the game, characters are plagued by recurring nightmares, there's a monster, and people start to mysteriously disappear. The player has to investigate.
While the game explores the background of the crisis, Leclair said the kidnappings and Westmount bombings come up but are never shown.
A newsboy holds up a newspaper with a banner headline reporting the invoking of the War Measures Act, in Ottawa, Oct. 16, 1970 the first time Canada had invoked the act in peacetime. The act was put into effect following the kidnapping of British diplomat James Cross and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte by the terrorist FLQ. An author of Quebec's high-school history textbooks casts the federal government as the main villain of the October Crisis 40 years ago, disputes that Pierre Laporte was murdered, and defends the terrorist FLQ whose victims were, he says, mere “collateral damage” in the greater cause of independence. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Bregg
The game is Leclaire's second. The first - Whispering Valley - explores the history of Catholicism in Quebec.
"Our Catholic background is not that great," he said. "I wanted to represent what it was to live under the Catholic institutions at the end of the 19th century."
Leclaire surpassed his fundraising goal for "Cauchemars D'Octobre" and hopes to become the first company in Quebec to make games about La Belle Province.
"If you look at Japan, videogames are their number one cultural export, and they express their culture through videogames," he said. "Here in Quebec, we mostly do American games for the American target, and I think it's a missed opportunity not to do games about Quebec."
The game is still several years away from being played in living rooms across the province.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Iran President Ebrahim Raisi still missing after helicopter accident in mountains
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday.
Court eases internet restrictions for Sask. man who matched with a 15-year-old girl on Tinder
A Saskatchewan man who had a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old girl he met on Tinder successfully appealed to shorten release conditions barring him from online dating.
Stittsville residents seeking answers as bylaw cracks down on street basketball nets
Stittsville residents on Kearnsley Way are seeking answers after an unusual bylaw crackdown on Friday. Every home with a basketball net received a ticket instructing homeowners to remove their nets from the road.
'A horrible way to start the summer': 3 killed in serious boat crash on lake north of Kingston, Ont.
Three people were killed and five others were injured Saturday night following a boat crash on the Buck Bay area of Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont., the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said.
What do we know so far about the mysterious crash of the helicopter carrying Iran's president?
The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iran's president and foreign minister on Sunday sent shock waves around the region.
Ex-partner charged with first-degree murder after 55-year-old woman killed in Montreal
Less than 24 hours after Montreal's 12th homicide investigation began, Montreal police confirmed that a 55-year-old woman's death in St. Michel is the island's 13th homicide. The woman's ex-spouse has been charged with first-degree murder.
Walmart, Costco refusing to sign grocery code of conduct 'untenable': industry minister
Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says it's 'untenable' for 'smaller players' like Walmart and Costco to delay signing on to the government- and industry-led grocery code of conduct, now that industry giant Loblaw has agreed to do so.
VIDEO Born without front legs, this dog has been inspiring the world for 3 years: Dresden farm owner
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
Toxic drugs circulating in northeastern Ont., police say
Canada’s largest First Nations police service, the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service issued a community safety alert as extremely toxic drugs are likely circulating in many of the communities it serves.