Mind Faux: The First Compliance – Šabac and Chicago team up on a new video game
Pixels2Pixels Studio specializes in VR, 3D animation, as well as the development of games and interactive digital experiences in Unreal Engine and Godot. In collaboration with Sugar Gamers from Chicago, the Šabac team decided to embark on the development of their own IP for the first time in 2024.
The title in question is Mind Faux: The First Compliance, a narrative puzzle/escape-room video game that explores themes such as propaganda, manipulation, critical thinking and the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. The video game medium is used as part of the game’s own message: what happens when the player does only what they’re told?
The game’s goal is not to offer players clear answers, but rather to leave them feeling curious, doubtful and uneasy at the end of each episode. Mind Faux highlights moral dilemmas and encourages players to question the information they accept, how it is processed and the role of their own consent in that process.
The game also contains elements inspired by Serbian culture and history, including references to Nikola Tesla, who is presented as a symbol of free thought and innovation, as well as visual motifs such as the Pirot carpet.
Mind Faux: The First Compliance is conceived as the first, standalone episode of a long-term IP, similar in structure to series like Black Mirror, where each episode functions as a self-contained whole, but together they build a broader thematic framework about contemporary society, institutions and information control.
Pixels2Pixels Studio was responsible for the complete development of the game – narrative, game and puzzle design, 3D art, optimization and technical implementation – while the creative direction was developed in close collaboration with the Sugar Gamers team. And here’s what Đorđe Đorđić, the studio’s founder and CEO, has to say about it all:
“Working on Mind Faux was completely different from working on client projects. For the first time, we had complete creative freedom, but also full responsibility for every decision – without an external brief and without automatic compromises.
As for the release, we are pleased because the game came out exactly as we imagined it. We do not see it as the end, but as the beginning of a dialogue with players and the further building of the Mind Faux IP.”
The game is available on Steam for PC and is also compatible with Steam Deck. The team is currently considering future ports and developing a VR version as an escape-room experience.