How do you fancy playing as a female assassin in an oppressive society in the distant future? Sound good – you’ll want to keep an eye out on Ektomarch’s vibrant stealth-action game Aerannis, then.
Ceyda Fahri is a twenty-something Bulgarian Turk, trans woman, and an assassin. While performing routine assassinations, she starts to uncover a larger plot that puts the last remaining city on Earth – Plovdiv, originally a haven for oppressed women – at risk.
So, Ceyda heads out to try to save Plovdiv from the greater forces that are at work, while also battling with her own mental state. She has two problems: who will believe her? And why should she care about saving those who look down at her as not a “whole” woman?
As you can tell from that plot summary, Ektomarch is hoping to give players of Aerannis an insight into the struggles of gender identity and empowerment in an oppressive world. However, unlike other games that do this, Ektomarch wants to try it without “sacrificing the intensity of 2D action games.”
As such, you can expect a 2D action adventure with a mission-based progression system and an open world to explore. You’ll be able to sneak through vents, take people hostage, make noises to distract patrols, execute people silently, lay down mines, and much more.
It’s a game that also has huge bosses for you to take on that will challenge you to use the various skills you’ve learned up until that point. Ektomarch is aiming for a summer 2015 release for Aerannis for, at least, PC. It will be coming to Kickstarter in a couple of weeks.
