MazM: Pechka heading to Switch

The story is based around the events surrounding Jae-hyung Choi, a social worker and independence activist in Russia’s Primorsky Krai area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Enlightenment era to early Japanese colonial era).

In fashioning the events into a 2D side-scrolling adventure game, MazM: Pechka transcends a mere documentary about Jae-hyung Cho’s life, becoming instead a dramatic, historical reimagining of the people and the era through the eyes of original characters and the story of what they go through. After being well-received on both mobile and PC (Steam), it was decided to bring this game to the Nintendo Switch™ to expand to new platforms and make the game more accessible to new gamers.

Through the agony and choices of the young Pyotr and Asya, Chosun people forced to live in Russia, the game makes players ask the question: “What would I do if I had lived in such an era?” In doing so, it shows us that the story of the fight against Japanese colonization isn’t just a story of heroes and other key figures of the time, but also a story with a message for our current time of rapid, sometimes violent change. In order to keep the events as historically accurate as possible, developers also worked closely with experts in the field.

For its meaning-filled message, MazM: Pechka won the “Good Game Award” at the 2020 Korea Game Awards, the game of the month in the “functionality” category from the Korea Creative Content Agency, an award for “Social Impact” at the 2020 Busan Indie Connect Festival (BIC), and “Best Narrative” award at the IGDGF 2023 (Independent Game Developers Guild Festival).