14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Vlambeer says that it did not aim to use any sort of Nazi imagery in its recently launched Luftrausers and that it regrets the fact that many players have interpreted the game to somehow promote the performance of Germany in World War II.
Developer Rami Ismail has posted an official blog in which he explains that his company has used elements from history to create the experience, but never intended to create a direct link to the real world.
He states, “Luftrausers is a dogfighting game very much inspired by a very specific century in the history of mankind. Somewhere between the 1900’s and the 1980’s, there was a period in which military intelligence was capable of determining whether an opposing military force was working on secret weapons, but not quite what those weapons were.”
The team was fascinated by the way two opposing forces were unable to determine exactly what weapons their enemies might use and came up with a game mechanics that simulated that lack of knowledge and the surprise it could create.
Ismail says that he believes Luftrausers to take place somewhere between World War II and the Cold War, in an alternate reality where weapons were developed at a much higher pace and where states were ready to act quickly in order to destroy them once discovered.
He adds, “You’re not playing any existing enemy force, not the Nazi’s, not the Japanese, not the Soviets, not any force that existed. It was always ‘some country we’d be spying on’, and we based our materials on the various countries we actually were spying on.”
The studio believes that each interpretation of Luftrausers is based on the topics the player cares about and on his experiences, and that Vlambeer never intended to make World War II a reference point.
Inspiration for the game was taken from sources like World War I, the Cold War and Thunderbirds.
Vlambeer as a company is based in the Netherlands, which was quickly occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II and suffered during the conflict, and the developers believe that all victims of conflict need to be remembered and commemorated.
Luftrausers is at the moment offered on the PC, Linux and Mac via the Steam digital distribution service from Valve.
Gamers can also get the indie game on the PlayStation 3 home console from Sony and the Vita handheld.