Blue Brigade

Blue Brigade is a small game made by 7 people, where you play as a PIDE agent during the Portuguese restricting regime, in the town of Óbidos and armed with the regime’s iconic blue pencil. At first, it feels light and playful as you run around censoring people who break the rules. But as you notice the banned clothes, forbidden music, and silenced conversations, the tone shifts, and the village begins to lose its colors. Behind the cute art and simple tasks, the game quietly shows the weight of living under censorship.

When the theme of the game jam was announced, the Carnation Revolution of 1974, a lot of ideas immediately came to mind. A knight wielding a black censor bar and hitting people with it to censor them. As the theme was explored more closely and the historical context was examined, the ideas shifted toward something more authentic. Instead of a censor bar, the tool actually used at the time, the blue pencil, was introduced, making it fitting for the player to take the role of an agent from that era. Further research into the period revealed what people were forbidden to talk about, the clothing styles that were banned, and the music and books that were censored.

The game Blue Brigade was originally created by Team Ovo Escalfado, six young people who participated in the third Cultural Game Jam in Óbidos and was later matured in collaboration with BATTLESHEEP, a game development studio based in Lisbon, Portugal, who recently have been working on educational, serious, and casino games for domestic and international clients.