Holocaust-Themed "Imagination is the Only Escape" Not Blocked, Says Publisher

Last month a 21-year-old British video game developer named Luc Bernard posted a description on his blog of a Holocaust-themed game he is writing for the Nintendo DS. The game, Imagination is the Only Escape, received swift negative reaction.

While the game is about the exploits of a young Jewish boy living in France during the Nazi occupation in World War II, the developer says it contains no on-screen violence and is meant to be educational. To me it sounds sorta Pan's Labyrinth-ish (and I loved that movie). However, obviously anything Holocaust-themed will be controversial.

The New York Times has reported that the game will not be distributed in the U.S., based on a Nintendo company statement.

However, at the same time, publisher Alten8 told Eurogamer that development on the game is in such early stages that they have not even discussed the game with Nintendo yet - and certainly distribution has not been blocked:

"The status of this game is currently concept / pre-production at this point in time. [Imagination is the Only Escape] is only in its early stages. No one has blocked it, and it has no definitive time scale for release. Luc [Bernard] is doing most of the artwork for all his game creations and we have not even discussed [IITOE] with Nintendo as of yet - Luc made various blog releases about the game concept and theme that have been picked up by various writers and used extensively, but are based on a few early artwork screens. In general we try to allow anyone we work with to use their creative talents and see no reasons why new type and styles of games and film content should not be tried."

Certainly, I believe, as does the developer, that a game of this nature could indeed be educational. After all, as poet and philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

That said, of course, I have not played the game or seen more than a few screenshots. But I would tend to give the developer some credit for intelligence - and sensitivity - around this issue. After all, as Bernard says in a blog post,

Now I would like to say something that I have already repeated, there is other games that are set during the Holocaust such as Call Of Duty and they are released on consoles.

So people before you say anything please play the game first, it has better taste than Call Of Duty and Medal Of Honor, this is the first Educational game set during that time.

Bernard also indicates that all his profits will be donated to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Could it be because a huge proportion of Nintendo DS games are generally on the "cutesy" side that all this ire has been raised?

What do you readers think?