Hi everybody!
We are so excited we can show you our next game: narrative adventure Playing Kafka!

To keep things short, let me just say that it will have three chapters, will adapt three works of Franz Kafka and its gonna be free and fully voiced in three languages!

Welcome to Playing Kafka, an adventure about the alienation of modern society as well as unresolved family issues. Created with leading Kafka experts.


[previewyoutube=sujFdR4j1yA;full][/previewyoutube]
Head below to our Steam page to learn everything about Playing Kafka, a game full of impenetrable schemes, insidious plot twists and conversations that slip out of hand:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2911850/Playing_Kafka/?beta=0

We are broadcasting as a part of Czech and Slovak Games Week! Check out the rest of the event.

Also, Attentat 1942 is 70% off

https://store.steampowered.com/app/676630/Attentat_1942/

In short: Beecarbonize is finally out there! On Steam, I mean. A big moment for us, diving into a different genre and topic, while never sacrificing what makes our games unique.

Beecarbonize 100% free, no ads, no microtransactions. A card game, yes, but one that is as much socially engaged as our historical titles. This time, a roguelike-inspired strategy.

Give it a go and let us know what you think and leave a review!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2486750/Beecarbonize/

Thanks for playing and your continued support.

Ondrej
Charles Games

It is that time of year in Czechia, where we eagerly await the annual Czech Game of the Year Award. And this time, the patience has paid off - Svoboda 1945: Liberation won and is the Czech Game of the Year!



A great achievement for a game that does not shy away from controversial, moving and often troubling and dark topics, for a story brimming with unresolved national traumas. We are really happy not only for the award itself but for the fact that a game prodding these corners of history can get that sort of attention. A hopeful message to all the devs out there trying similar things.

And moreover, it is a testament to the great work our extended circle of cooperators did - including our brilliant historians, filmmakers, translators, sound designers, artists and everybody who participated on the game. You might see most often the faces of Charles Games core team, but Svoboda 1945 would not have been possible without all the people who chipped in. You deserve a bow...

...since we were also nominated in the game design, technical excellency and audiovisual design categories!



Thank you :) And congratulations to all the other nominees and winners! And as always, we are grateful to you, our fans, who helped us along the way and made it all happen.

If you speak Czech you can watch the whole award ceremony here:
[previewyoutube=28MSrerXtxM;full][/previewyoutube]

Hi and hello! As a celebration of Czech and Slovak Games Week, our developer Ondrej will be streaming and giving a short lecture on our approach to history in games. Tune in and prepare questions :)

Can you believe it? We still can't! It was on Saturday when we learned that Svoboda 1945: Liberation was selected as this year's winner of IndieCade Grand Jury Award! A big, big satisfaction for all people who participated on the game - because IndieCade is not only cool and a great home to all indie and interesting games, but also the "Sundance" festival of Games, ever since Time magazine wrote it in 2014.



It is a sign that topics we deal with might appear very local (atec, anyone?), but nevertheless speak about more general things that people all around the world can emphasize and identify with - reconciliation with your own family and national history, ethnic tensions, the way big history gets reflected in the everyday life and is imprinted into personal belongings.

So, thank you so much! Thanks IndieCade, thanks to all fans, thanks all people involved in making Svoboda 1945 - including our dear historians and actors.



By the way, check out the rest of the winners - a very interesting company to be in.

Cheers and have a great day wherever you are! And share your favorite Svoboda 1945 memories with us, if you want. We are eager to hear them.

Ondrej
Charles Games

Hello all!
We have been little quieter than usual as we had our hands full as we participated in various showcases in Czechia. But lately, big news came that we had to break the silence and let you know!

Svoboda 1945: Liberation has been nominated for the prestigious IndieCade & TIGA awards!


For IndieCade, the long-running independent gaming festival, we got nominations in Narrative and Impact categories, while also being eligible in numerous others. At TIGA, the category is Heritage in games - not bad!

Apart from hoping for the best, we'll be having special sales, streams, events and we will let you know about them soon. IndieCade takes place at the end of October, TIGA on November 10th at a very historical site.

We are thrilled!

So, keep your fingers crossed for us, take care, and, as always, thank you for your continuing support!

Ondrej
Charles Games

Hello and happy summer!
It is with great appreciation for all of your support that we are celebrating a very special anniversary - Svoboda 1945: Liberation turns 1 today!

We are happy that we got you as our players, whether you play on your computers or mobile devices!

Since then, we have

• won 9 awards in total,
  
• grew bigger, got new offices,
  
• planted new pot of radishes,
  
• held our first fan art contest,
  
• got onto a bunch of new projects about which you will hear soon enough,
  

Hello and thank you all the participants in our fanart contest! We are delighted in great submissions that landed in our inbox.

After a long deliberation, we chose the winner - it's Eva Trundova.

[h3]Congratulations![/h3]

She chose to depict this scene:


It's great, right? We asked some more about Eva and apart from owning a limited boxset of our games, she' doing animations and other artworks over at her Instagram. As for the artwork she sent us: can you guess where it's from? Do so in the comments and later, we will drop by with the right answer.

Thanks so much! And be on the lookout for more contests in the future!

Ondrej

Hello and let me get the good news out right away: we won the Most Significant Impact award at the prestigious and long-running Games for Change 2022!

Svoboda 1945: Liberation was chosen from four finalists in the category that included our friends, authors of Blackhaven or Dot's Home, an important story about black family history - by the way, this title snatched the Best Narrative award and we sent out big congratulations!

We are super delighted to be recognized at a festival that's been around since 2004 and it's been a great place o look up serious, moving, and important titles every year. Also, back in 2018, Attentat 1942 was awarded the "Best Learning" award.

Taking part in this year's competition was a lot of cool games like Before Your Eyes or The Vale, so you can imagine we are glad to be in such good company. It could not have happened without your support!

Here are some games from the festival to check out:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1668610/Blackhaven/?snr=1_5_1100__1100
https://store.steampowered.com/app/989790/The_Vale_Shadow_of_the_Crown/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1763520/Dots_Home/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1648040/There_You_Are/

That's a wrap. We got some Svoboda-related news for you and the art contest winner will be announced soon so keep your eyes peeled and have a great time!

Ondrej
Charles Games

Hello!
Summer, with its long days and bright light, is an ideal time for some art - and we have an art opportunity for you!

Staring now until 20th July (midnight), we accept fanarts from any of our games!

Any minor or major character, any environment or object, any part of our work that you find inspiring is eligible. At the end of the contest we will choose our most favorite art piece and reward its author with an exclusive boxed set of Svoboda 1945: Liberation and Attentat 1942, containing a lot of special items!

Send your submissions on info@charlesgames.net, tag us or dm us anywhere.

We're looking forward to seeing your work and sharing it with our community.

The flyer:


Happy drawing (or painting!),
Ondrej
Charles Games

Hello!
It is with great pleasure that I can announce that our very first Charles Games official soundtrack is out!

The 32-minute album includes a track from both Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Mixing ambient layers with field recordings, experimental as well as historical instruments, it bears an unmistakable touch by its authors DVA. The Czech experimental duo has been around for more than 16 years and it has been an honor to cooperate.

Head to the official Steam page that includes snippets of some of the music - the collection includes previously unheard arrangements!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009820/Svoboda_1945_Liberation_Soundtrack/

We asked Jan (a half of DVA) about the whole process.

"Creating game soundtracks is a very specific thing. It reminds me of building legos, a lot of loops and emotions you then layer on top of each other. With DVA, we mostly do cheerful music, so Attentat 1942 and Svoboda 1945 have been a big challenge. We had to get serious, dark, which is out of the ordinary."

And apart from innovative voicework, cellos, and folk music, Jan also shares some peculiar instruments used.


DVA

"For the most part, we combined field recordings (train station, laundry, water powerplant) and acoustic instruments. We also used a very special bass clarinet, probably used by a German and later Czechoslovak army. Bra, my colleague from DVA, got it in some pawn shop. Even today, you can see the year 1939 on it along with a slightly visible Swastika."

We hope you'll enjoy our soundtrack! If you prefer to get your music on Bandcamp, you can find it on the official page of DVA - https://dva2.bandcamp.com/album/ost-attentat-1942-svoboda-1945-liberation.

And as always, thanks for your continued support!

Ondrej

Hi!
Hope you are having a fine end of November. Apart from other things, we at Charles Games are still working on improving your Svoboda 1945 experience.

This time with trading cards!

So from now on, you can start collecting all 9 cards and you might be able to craft six levels of badges handmade by our art director Eva. Cards are earned by playing and if you spent some time in Svoboda 1945: Liberation, chances are that you already have some. Check your inventory!



If you click the card from the game page in your Steam library (right sidebar), you can view a special wallpaper. Each card has one, depicting parts of our in-game comics in great detail.

By the way, we plan on adding more items to the Points shop as well, but one thing at a time.

Thanks for your continued support and happy card hunting!

Ondrej
Charles Games

Hi!
This week we are celebrating not only our national holiday (17th November and the beginning of the fall of the communist dictatorship!) but also Czech & Slovak Games Week, a showcase of our neighboring and vibrant game scenes.

To mark this special occasion we have prepared a special stream, starting at 20:00 CET / 19:00 UTC, hosted by our lead programmer Ondrej and our marketing person and developer Ondrej - they are not the same!

We'll be discussion the development background of Svoboda 1945: Liberation as well as Attentat 1942. An of course playing the games with commentary and hanging out with you.

[h3]We will also be announcing an exciting new project of our studio.

Tune in at Czech & Slovak Games Week page: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/czskgamesweek2021[/h3]



So board our streaming train and let's meet this evening!

Ondrej

Hello!
After months of translating, making sure all fits, tying all the loose ends, and polishing, we are happy to announce that Svoboda 1945: Liberation is now available in German! Fully subtitled, with localized comics, materials, encyclopedia, including all the context and info you need to experience its moving story, whether you are a native speaker or a German fan.

The game takes place in the Czech lands, but the history depicted in our game is truly Czech-German history. Tumultuous, but a shared one.

We hope that Svoboda 1945: Liberation, now in German, can help us all better understand the past.

Thank you for your continued support!

Ondrej
Charles Games

Hi,
We hope you are all well! We are working hard on the German translation and virtually touring the world to show our moving story to as many people as possible. So let us welcome you to the Indie Cup, a celebration of the eastern European indie gaming scene. Apart from us, you'll meet a diverse group of horror, cute, serious, or just innovative games. Visit the official Steam page to see it all: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/indiecup2021

To add to it, Svoboda 1945: Liberation is 15% off for the duration of the Indie Cup!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1076620/Svoboda_1945_Liberation/

So let's meet during some of the streams and special events. And congratulations to all the winners!

We will let you about the release of the German translation soon :) It's weeks near.

Ondrej

Hello!
It's Ondrej from Charles Games once again and it's my pleasure to announce that our long awaited native Linux port is here! You asked, we listened!

Attentat 1942 was so warmly received by the Linux community, so porting Svoboda 1945: Liberation was a no-brainer. Linux players are among the most encouraging and passionate. Thanks a lot.



Starting now you can explore the dark past in our fresh native Linux. Meet the two people responsible for bringing it to the worlds favorite free OS:



Happy playing! And we got one favor to ask all our new and existing players: If you havent done so already, please leave us a review here on Steam. Every single one helps us, really, to get our game in front of more potential history connoisseurs.

Thank you! And as always, if anything goes wrong, leave us a comment here or write to us at

Ondrej
Charles Games

Just a quick announcement - if you loved Svoboda 1945: Liberation, you'll also like Attentat 1942. Luckily, we have made it easier to complete your collection of unique historical adventures!

Check our Gaming the Past bundle, out now:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/22293/Gaming_the_Past/

Now you can get our award-winning game, Apple Design Awards finalist, and Czech game of the Year at 10% off. And if you know of somebody who'd like to dive right into Charles Games Extended Universe, you know where to send them.

Meanwhile, we're preparing some other improvements for Svoboda 1945: Liberation, working on Linux ports, German translation, and more! Stay tuned.

Ondrej

Ondrej from Charles Games here, hey, how are you?

We are moved by all the responses to Svoboda 1945: Liberation! As a thank you, we just released our first patch, fixing some issues with our card minigame and little fixes here and there - by the way thanks for reporting them to us, our info@charlesgames.net is here if you need something.

And to add to the cheerful atmosphere, reviews started coming in and they are better than we could have asked for. To keep it short, we complied them together:



And thanks so much for the reviews here on Steam as well. We read each and every one and they help us tremendously, so if you played the game, please write us a review. Much obliged!

That's all for now, but mind you, we have a lot up our sleeve in the coming months and weeks, including the Linux port.

Talk soon!

Ondrej
Charles Games

Hello,
I hope you're having a great day because ours definitely is. Why?

[h3]Svoboda 1945: Liberation is finally released![/h3]



After three years of intense development with the past few months full of polishing, testing, and making sure everything is in order, we are happy to say: it's done. As of now, players all across the world can immerse themselves in a game that we poured our hearts into and stories that are often left untold.

So join us! And if you know about anybody who'd be interested in our unique take on the historical game, with moving personal stories, captivating playable memories of the past, or interactive comics, let them know. Any little bit helps.

Were also going to have a stream later today at 19:45 CET (13:45 ET) with the whole studio, celebrating! Join us via the event page (you can also set up a reminder) at https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1076620/view/2992064312017115328

And we are so glad we are sharing this journey with you, our great fans. It could not have happened without you.

Thank you so much.

See you in Svoboda,
Ondrej
Charles Games

Hello, we just wanted to say hi from all of us here at Charles Games as we are making final touches and polishes to the game we have been working on for the last three years!



We are so much looking forward to hearing what you'll have to say once we release it tomorrow on August 3, 16:00 CET (7:00 PT / 10:00 ET). We'll also be doing a stream later at 19:45. See you all there!



We're happy and thrilled and eager to finally show Svoboda 1945: Liberation to the public!

So see you tomorrow,
Ondrej

Special occasion needs a special event! As promised, we're gonna celebrate the launch of our long-awaited Svoboda 1945: Liberation with a developer stream Join our core team with lead designer Vt, lead programmer Ondrej, studio lead Lukas and the rest of the team.

Ask us anything, hang out, have a good one and help us launch our long-awaited game. The stream will be taking place here on Steam.

So add it to you calendars and add Svoboda 1945: Liberation to your wishlists so you won't miss the release on August 3, 16:00 CET (7:00 PT):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1076620/Svoboda_1945/

Hi!
Ondrej from Charles Games here with one of the last posts before the release of Svoboda 1945: Liberation on August 3, 16:00 CET!

Yes, that's right and we cannot be more thrilled - our three-year work goes public in 6 days. Which is the best time to give you, our fabulous fans, some historical context for the story that'll start unwinding on Tuesday.

You might know some of these facts, but even in Czech school this is not something commonly talked about. So - let's get into it.

[h3]Where does Svoboda 1945: Liberation takes place?[/h3]
The unofficial name of this region is Sudetenland, the Czech-German border area. Our village is situated in the atec region. Roughly there:




The region had a sizable German-speaking minority since the inception of Czechoslovakia, so it's been a multi-ethnic republic from the start.

[h3]What happened in Sudetenland during World War 2?[/h3]
The key date is September 30, 1938, when the Munich Treaty happened. Enduring a long pressure from Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia was ultimately (with the consent of Britain, France and Italy) forced to give up Sudetenland to the Third Reich.

The popularity of Nazi-affiliated parties in these areas of Czechoslovakia was rising ever since Hitler came to power in Germany. This will be important later.

In March 1939, the rest of Czech lands were taken over by Nazis and made into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. That is what our Attentat 1942 is about.

[h3]And what about when the war ended?[/h3]
After the Nazi surrender, Sudetenland was returned back to Czechoslovakia. But the post-war reconciliation was not so easy - enter the story of Svoboda 1945: Liberation.

At first wildly, later officially by the government, most German speaking citizens were being expelled and their property expropriated. Often violently. Around 2.4 milion people were made to leave their homes.

[h3]How is this important today?[/h3]
The fate of Sudetenland formed the contemporary face of the Czech Republic. Former Sudetenland regions are generally the poorer parts of the country, often ridden with social problems. And the expulsion itself is still a controversial topic, often stirring up heated debates about guilt, justice or nationalism.

This is, of course, just one of the many events that took place in the turbulent time right at the end of the war - death marches, coming of Volhynian Czechs, liberation efforts, communist putsch, collectivization.

With Svoboda 1945: Liberation we want to add our piece to the historical puzzle, showing what happened in a nuanced, truthful and moving way.

I hope you are now better prepared to take the plunge on August 3.

See you on Tuesday!
Ondrej
Charles Games

Hi to all!
It's now less than four weeks until release (August 3!) and that means not only a full sprint on the polishing and debugging track but also the time festivals, awards, recognitions, and competitions.

Today I am happy to share that Svoboda 1945: Liberation has been nominated for the prestigious 2021 James Paul Gee Learning Games Award in the category Informal Learning! Even though our game is not educational per se, we are still happy that the learning potential gets recognized.

Check out the other categories and our co-finalists here.

The winners will be announced during the Play, Make, Learn conference, starting August 5 (yay).

There's also gonna be a people's vote from July 16 so if you wanna help us, we won't stop you and will notify you once it opens.

So anyway we just wanted to share this great news with you and let you know we are looking forward to the final game so much. So much, in fact, that below is an exclusive collectivization mini-game scene screenshot for you:




Looking forward to catching you later and during the launch party!

Ondrej from Charles Games

Hi, it's Ondrej from Charles Games once again.

Germany has a long and complex relationship with the Czech Republic. Svoboda 1945: Liberation (releasing August 3!) is dealing with some dark and challenging chapters of our shared history. The game takes place in Sudetenland from where a large number of German people were expelled after World War 2 - often just because of their nationality. Homes lost, families torn apart.

Our Anna Grtschel was one of them and now she's back for the first time, to show her granddaughter around a place that is full of memories.

From all of this, it's apparent that we are dealing with history that crosses national borders, the one that is shared by both Czech and German people.

To honor that complex history Svoboda 1945: Liberation will be available in German!

With subtitles, transcripts of historical documents, and items. Our goal is the same as with Attentat 1942 - to make the game that talks about our common history more accessible to those it talks about as well.

We are working hard on making the German localization available upon launch. So if you have any German-speaking friends you think would be interested in a game that is about history we share and one that doesn't shy away from showing the difficult parts of it, let them know.

We are really looking forward to the feedback of our German players. Talk to you soon!

And as always, thanks so much to you, our fans, for your continuing support. See you on August 3!

Ondrej

P.S.: Check out our gameplay video if you haven't already:

[previewyoutube=FQRWpNPxlfk;full][/previewyoutube]

Hi, Ondrej from Charles Games here. Big news!

[h3]We will release Svoboda 1945: Liberation on August 3![/h3]

That means our teasing will soon be over and we can't wait for you to play the full game. We have everything basically complete and we're testing, polishing, and adding accessibility touches, to ensure you'll have as smooth an experience as possible.

And to give you an idea what to expect, behold, our gameplay trailer:

[previewyoutube=FQRWpNPxlfk;full][/previewyoutube]

It shows not only more interviews and story snippets but also interactive comics and other scenes such as our favorite attic exploration - in much more detail, alive, and captured right in-game.

Honestly, we are pretty happy with the results. What about you? As always, any feedback in the comments or on our Discord is welcome.

In the meantime, enjoy your summer! And see you on the 3rd of August during our online launch party :)

Ondrej

Hello!
As the August release of Svoboda 1945: Liberation gets closer and closer, we have started submitting our game to festivals, because we are eager to show it to gaming community.

One of them was Brazilian BIG festival, arguably the most important south american gaming event!

And apart from being a great (online) party, WE WON BEST SOCIAL MATTERS GAME AWARD!



We are so happy, because an award such as this means that the topics in Svoboda 1945: Liberation resonate with people outside of Czechia and outside of Europe. It's a proof that experiences of our characters might be local, but the story is relatable to everyone.

Including you!

Thanks to everybody who played the demo and got back to us with any feedback, it means a lot to us.

Looking forward to sharing the full game with all of you in August!

Ondrej
Charles Games

Hello and thanks to everyone as LudoNarraCon has been a complete blast.

A lot of people played our demo and the feedback we got was great so we decided to keep it alive :) So if you know about anybody who is interested in historical adventures, we'd be super happy if you'd shared our game. Thanks in advance!

And if you played our demo, you can always watch our gameplay stream of the full game or listen to lead designer Vt talking about his approach to contested history:

[previewyoutube=oS16g2w4jnE;full][/previewyoutube]

Or you can find it all in our dedicated playlist.

Doing streams has been a good deal of fun and we definitely plan to do them again as we are closing in to the game's release.

So a reminder: Svoboda 1945: Liberation is releasing in August 2021, so it is only three months away!

We are thrilled, but also eager to hear what you have to say. So if there is any particular section of the game, concept art, anything that sparked your interest, let us know in the comments. I'd be happy to show you as much as I can.

Thanks for your continuing support.

Ondrej
Charles Games

Final stream of our LudoNarraCon schedule. We will play and comment selected portion of the full game, showing parts and pieces that are not included in the festival demo. Behind-the-scenes talk, questions from you and discussion about gamifying history tactfully. Hosted by project lead Lukas, programmer Ondrej and comms chief Ondrej!

We collect questions on our Discord! http://bit.ly/CHGDiscord

Third LudoNarraCon stream and a business (but not too much) one. Meet our Project Lead Lukas Kolek and hear more about our year 1 story in the indie game business. What did we learn? How is it making serious historical games? AND WHAT ABOUT TIK TOK? Hosted by comms chief Ondrej.

And as usual, ask us at our Discord in the QA channel at: http://bit.ly/CHGDiscord

Second dev stream of LudoNarraCon! Watch us play our demo (you can try it after April 23rd yourself) for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look and commentary! Also, ask us anything over at our Discord: http://bit.ly/CHGDiscord



Hosted by scripter/marketing guy Ondrej Trhon (@ondrejtrhon), programmer Ondrej Paska (@ondrapaska) & QA Andrea Hubert (@anderheru)!

Our first stream for LudoNarraCon 2021! Join us for interview and QA session with our lead designer Vit and uncover troubles we had to face when turning real history into game. Moreover, when that history is contested and stirs emotions even today.

QA will be hosted on our Discord at http://bit.ly/CHGDiscord

Hello!
We are delighted that we made the cut and can participate in this years LudoNarraCon, the biggest online festival focused on games with ambitious narratives.

It will run on Steam from April 23rd to April 26th!

First of all, it means we will have a PLAYABLE DEMO!

In it, you will go through the very beginning of the game, arriving in our village and starting your survey in the local schoolhouse. The demo will include 4 playable characters as well as the main map, and other scenes for you to try!



If you decide to give it a go, please give us feedback - you can use our Twitter, Discord, or E-mail. We are eager to finally show you the first parts of our game!

Streams, QAs, behind-the-scenes!

LudoNarraCon is about much more than that, including talks and of course dev live streams. You can find the full schedule here, but with Svoboda 1945: Liberation, we have prepared 4 streams, one for each festival day, covering everything from our approach to history to a behind-the-scenes look at our life as an indie studio making serious games. Just a note: we list the streams in CET time, you can easily convert them to your in Google by searching for "time CET" (e.g. querying "9:30 CET") and it should automatically convert to your local time!

So tune in at:

April 23rd, 21:30 CET
How to make game about real historical traumas? - Vit Sisler, Ondrej Trhon, QA/AMA (Discord)

April 24th, 18:00 CET
Commented demo gameplay - livestream - Ondej Paka, Ondej Trhon, Andrea Hubertova

April 25th, 18:30 CET
- Going indie with narrative-heavy game: year 1 survival guide - talk/QA - Lukas Kolek, Ondrej Trhon

April 26th, 23:00 CET
Gaming & narrativizing history - Commented livestream (non-demo) - Lukas Kolek, Ondrej Paska, Ondej Trhon



If there's anything, in particular, you'd like us to cover, let us know and/or drop by into our Discord at the time of the event and ask us :) We're there for you!

Thanks a lot for all the support you are giving us everywhere and see you all on Friday :)

Ondrej
Charles Games