How do you get a game like this to
connect with an audience that doesn't
even know there was such a thing as a
golden age of Islamic scientific
development?
>> Well, first of all, you make it fun. You
make it a fun puzzle quest before you
even think about the theme itself.
>> It's a way of trying to have people
engage with the with the Islamic
history, in this case, the golden age,
so that these things don't vanish.
>> How bad do you think Islamophobia is in
the United States right now?
>> Every election cycle gets pretty bad.
It's quite bad now. I believe that we
have to do our work not in combating
narratives but reaffirming our
identities.
Get ready for a new adventure where you
can step back into time to the Muslim
Middle Ages, collecting ancient
artifacts, solving enigmatic puzzles,
all to preserve the scientific legacy of
the Islamic Golden Age as a fog of
forgetfulness threatens to erase that
knowledge forever. That's the premise of
a new video game called Vanished: Puzzle
Quest. It's made by Unity Productions
Foundation, a group whose mission is to
counter bigotry and create peace through
media with a focus on increasing
religious and cultural pluralism,
especially among Muslims and other
faiths. Joining me now is UPF assistant
producer Ariela Gayoto Hull, who
spearheaded the development of Vanished
along with UPF co-founder and executive
producer Alex Cron. Thank you both for
joining me.
>> Thank you.
>> So, congratulations. The game is out,
but let's just back into it. Ariel, I
believe your background is in film
making,
>> correct?
>> So, how did you end up working on a
game? Why did you want to work on this
game? What was your inspiration, your
goal?
>> Well, the biggest thing for us is how do
we reach more people and the gaming
industry is actually larger than film
and music combined.
>> So, for us, we felt like it was very
important for us to get into this
industry and reach more people that way
in an interactive way to tell the story.
And Alex, UPF's mission, as I mentioned,
is to combat bigotry and increase
cultural pluralism. How does a game like
Vanished help you achieve that goal?
>> Well, uh, as Ariela was saying, you
know, gaming is big. Uh, we realize
that, uh, we typically are making films
and documentaries, but there's only a
certain audience for that. There's an
audience who will never watch a film,
never watch a documentary. So, how do
you also reach that audience? And that
was the idea of doing a game. Um Ariela
for a lot of kids uh in the American
school system because we I mentioned in
the introduction a lot of this is about
Islamic history Islamic golden age um
and we covered the movie recently time
hoppers which covered this you know
similar time period
>> the history a lot of American kids learn
in school and European kids is very
euroentric focuses on the advancements
of science and technology that came out
of the west during the renaissance the
enlightenment
>> how do you get a game like this to
connect with an audience that doesn't
even know knew there was such a thing as
a golden age of Islamic scientific
development.
>> Well, first of all, you make it fun.
>> You make it about the interact the
interactiveness of it. You make it a fun
puzzle quest before you even think about
the theme itself. So that was one of our
priorities for us was to make sure the g
game stood on its own. But really what
we also wanted to do is to address that
public awareness and that historic
memory to get people to think about who
are the people that contributed to the
modern world, to science, to all these
inventions that made us the society we
are today in a way that feels natural
and engaging.
>> And if I could just add to that, the the
and you kind of piggy on what you asked
me earlier, the thing about the game is
you're using objects that help you win.
So you're interacting, you're engaged
with them rather than sort of passively
watching a film uh where you're trying
to absorb something. This way
understanding these objects and using
the objects gives you a positive
experience of progressing through the
game.
>> What's the feedback been like
>> so far? Great. I mean we've only uh we
just launched two weeks ago.
>> Y
>> we already have a couple hundred
thousand downloads.
>> Uh very we got five five stars on Apple
and and almost that on Google Play. So,
so far so good.
>> So, let's talk big picture in terms of
what you're trying to achieve here. And
just for the sake of our audience, you
are a white American man. You are, I
believe, Brazilian.
>> Correct.
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Fearless Independent Journalism. Yes.
So, you're both Muslims. So, let me ask
you this question. How you both live in
the US?
>> Yes.
>> How bad do you think Islamophobia is in
the United States right now with members
of Congress, Republican members, saying
they'd pick a dog over a Muslim, saying
Islam is evil and unamerican, others
saying that Zoran Mandani as mayor means
the enemies are within the gate.
>> How bad do you think it is right now?
>> Every election cycle gets pretty bad,
right? And so, particularly with
everything that's going on in the world,
it's it's quite bad now. But we've been
doing our work since before 9/11. So
we've gone through a lot of n you know
it was 911 there was the Iraq war.
>> How does now compare to 911? The fallout
from 911 in terms of
>> Okay, here's the difference. I the
leadership after 9/11 was more um
positive and and wanted to make sure
there wasn't a backlash.
>> People forget that George W. Bush
despite all his war crimes went to a
mosque and said Islam is peace.
>> Exactly.
>> Which you cannot imagine Donald Trump
doing.
>> Exactly. And unfortunately since then
you know we have particularly again in
election cycles you have people you know
trying to best themselves what's the
worst thing they can say about Muslims
and you know how can they seem you know
people raising uh votes or trying to
raise money and votes off of fear. So
this is not a new phenomenon. We've
experienced it before.
>> Uh and um uh but what I think is
different than than what we experienced
20 plus years ago when we first started
our work is that there's there's a
cultural shift that's happening. And I
think it's happening honestly with work
that you're doing, work that we've been
doing, showing films, doing doing games,
doing these things that are beginning to
shift the perception of who Muslims are
and what Islam is. So that when you do
have these voices that say this, they
start to land more and more on deaf
ears. They don't have the same impact
that they used to. So yes, we're hearing
those voices again. Uh but I do feel
like the the the cultural reaction to
them is is more muted than it has been
in earlier times. Are you as optimistic
slashpositive as Alex Ariel?
>> I believe that we have to do our work
not in combating narratives but
reaffirming our identities and that to
me is at the core of the work that we
do. We are not responding to things. We
are creating things that come
>> writing our own stories. Expanding the
story.
>> Exactly. Exactly. That's what I think
matters to me the most. So, Alex, on
that note, one of the enemies of this
game, you could say, is the lack of
awareness, the lack of corrective memory
threatens to wipe out our knowledge of
the past. And that's not just a Muslim
thing. That's across the board in the
United States. Um, what do you think
about the current geopolitical situation
in which this game is emerging at a time
when you look at somewhere like Iran,
cultural sites, major Islamic historical
artifacts are being destroyed by our
government.
>> Right. Well, I mean, that's sort of the
metaphor for the game is that is that
these things are being lost. These
things are being destroyed. There's a
villain in the in the game who is
causing these things to vanish, hence
the name of the game. And you, the
player, are combating that. And again,
so it's a way of trying to have people
engage with the with the Islamic
history, in this case, the golden age,
so that these things don't vanish, so
these memories do stay. And again, I do
I am somewhat optimistic. I do feel like
um uh you know that
and I I mean to go back to the first
Trump administration when the Muslim ban
happened. I remember getting out of an
airport. I didn't know the H and there
was like all these people protesting. I
had no idea and they were they were
white people, right? They weren't, you
know, the PE and they were protesting
because there hadn't already been a
shift, right? And I do feel like there
is a shift. I feel like it's continuing
to happen. Again, it's happening through
the efforts of many people and not just
the efforts of organizations or like
you, but efforts of individuals, you
know, who who are more um proudly
asserting their identity in the various
fields in which they're doing good work.
>> Area Vanished is available for free.
>> It is.
>> You also produced a documentary last
year called Islam's greatest love
stories which examines love and grief
and I think PBS made that available. Um,
why is it so important to have work like
yours and UPFS publicly available,
accessible with little or no cost?
>> For many reasons. One of them is we want
to center representation in a way that
feels accessible to anyone. We want to
make we wanted to make sure it was
adree. We wanted to make sure it reached
as many po people as possible that would
connect with it either because of the
theme itself or because of the way of
the story and the narrative and the
beautiful visuals or just simply because
they want to do something that has to do
with their own identity. So for us, I
think what's been the most important is
create narratives that feel universal
but that are situated in a particular
context that we as Muslims believe that
are important but it's also natural to
who we are and the stories that we're
creating. So we want to create things
that feel as universal as possible, as
inaccessible to everyone as possible
while also centering it in the
particular context that we come from.
>> And before we forget, you know, we we
have a companion website called
vanish.game. That's the URL that really
uh explores much more deeply these
themes, these ideas uh that Ariel is
mentioning.
>> And Alex, one of UPF's upcoming projects
is a film called Son of Mary.
>> That's right.
>> What is that all about? How does that
fit into your mission? Uh so in in that
uh what we're doing in that film is
we're telling the story of Jesus as he
is known in the Islamic tradition and we
see this as actually a bridge of unity.
Uh most people don't know that Jesus is
a beloved figure in Islam. Yes,
>> he's mentioned uh by name more times
than Muhammad is mentioned in the Quran
>> that his mother is a virgin.
>> His mother's a virgin. Mary plays in in
the Islamic version, Mary plays a role
throughout his whole life.
>> Uh and and
>> so this is a documentary feature film. a
docu drama.
>> Okay.
>> The way we're pursuing it is a docu
drama. And um
>> um we believe that uh there's that this
is a something that not only has its own
educational value, not only that it has
an affirming fact for Muslims, but also
is is a bridge building exercise and
that's how we're pursuing it.
>> Before we finish, I have to go back to
Vanished and ask you this question. I
was never very good at video games. Is
this a hard game to master?
>> No.
>> Can I can I do it?
>> You can do it. And and as you play the
game,
>> is there an age group it's talking about
or is it open to 46y old? It's it's for
your age group. And if you get stuck on
certain things, then there are hints
that pop up the
>> Then I'll just ask my kids.
>> Absolutely.
>> Alex Ariela, thank you so much. The game
is called Vanished. And where can people
get it?
>> They can find it on Android in the
Google Play Store. They can find it on
the App Store, on Steam, and Epic Games
on the desktop as well.
>> Thank you both for joining me.
>> Thank you, Matthew.
>> Thank you.
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