DUST BORN
Speak truth to power on a road trip across a divided America
Developer/publisher Red Thread Games
Format PC
Origin Norway
Release 2021
Dustborn’s cast aren’t just skilled wordsmiths, but eager musicians. The five of them make up a folk-punk-rock band; you’ll learn songs around the campfire, before proving yourself in a Battle Of The Bands
As the old saying goes: sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you. Red Thread Games, it seems, has taken this adage to heart. Narrative adventure Dustborn boasts a cast so stubbornly diverse - the usual robot and a dude with a beard, sure, but also an albino, a plus-size person of colour with what looks like vitiligo, and a female Black lead who also happens to be four months pregnant - that it instantly sent certain corners of the internet into a tailspin. “Especially on YouTube, we got a lot of, ‘Oh, it’s SJW: The Game,’” says director and narrative designer Ragnar Tørnquist. “And that actually feels kind of good, because you feel like, okay, you’re making those people angry - well, at least we’re doing something. And it means we’re doing something right, probably.”