It has only been a few days since Disney’s Steamboat Willie and early Mickey Mouse designs became public domain, and every single industry is taking advantage of this opportunity. Game developers, movie makers, and artists are already utilizing the design of Mickey Mouse in countless different formats.
A game using this domain that is currently under scrutiny within the community is titled Infestation 88, which is currently being developed by an indie group called Nightmare Forge Games. At the moment, there are a few reasons as to why this game has been met with a large amount of negativity, but many of these reasons are just theories based on the opinions of those in gaming community, there is no proof they are true.
Why Have the Developers Behind Infestation 88 Been Targeted by the Gaming Community?
Since the announcement of Infestation 88, there has been a lot of controversy over the title’s name and its description. The reasoning behind this is that certain members of the gaming community have pointed out that aspects of the game’s name and description hint at some Nazi undertones.
For example, gamers have pointed out that the number 88 that is included within the title is part of the “white supremacist numerical code” and is used for the phrase “Heil Hitler.” This is because the letter H is the 8th letter in the alphabet, which leads to the number 88, meaning HH.
Since this has been pointed out, the development team at Nightmare Forge Games made the choice to change the game title to Infestation: Origins. There have also been people attempting to contact the development team, asking them directly as to whether or not they are Neo-Nazis, to which the developers replied with a direct response of “no, we are not.“.
For obvious reasons, this has caused a lot of discourse for the development team. There have been comments related to the game’s Steam description, which has also been changed. It used to describe the game as a 1-4 player co-op experience in which it is your job to exterminate the vermin that plague the game, which take the form of classic characters and urban legends.
This led to the gaming community calling out the development team as they worried that the developers were secretly Neo-Nazi’s. Gamers point out that on the developer’s website, no staff members are listed, which the development team says is to protect their privacy. However, some members of the gaming community believe this is just an attempt to protect a select group of “proud Neo-Nazi’s.“.
Why Have the Developers Chosen Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse to Include In Their Game?
As stated above, one of the main reasons the developers have chosen the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse is because his design is now public domain. This is one of the many reasons why Mickey Mouse has been selected for this indie game, but one of the main reasons is that the developers want to create a horror experience filled with famous characters and urban legends.
So far, Mickey Mouse is one of the only characters that has been shown to be included in this game. This is because the title is still in development and will most likely have more characters advertised as it continues to be developed.
Another reason Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie was chosen is because he is a very creepy character, especially with the design the development team has chosen. Since this version of Mickey Mouse was originally in black and white, that means that the development team has kept this design choice, but added a bit more gore, longer limbs, and degraded clothes to add to the aesthetic.
Along with Mickey Mouse, there will be extra enemies that plague the levels players will be able to adventure through. There will also be regular rats that swarm the floor and will attempt to attack the characters, and even some large rats that are the size of humans, which will chase you down and haunt your dreams.
At the moment, the development team is working on adjusting the game and its title and description so players feel comfortable supporting the project. For now though, the gaming community is still focused on the fact that this project and the team behind it are “Neo-Nazi’s,” but until any proof surfaces, this is just another theory from people looking too far into something that isn’t there.
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