Fixed Line – miners, mechs and mismanagement in a remote world | Sports

Met is rare for a video game to feature corporate events as an important theme, but it does happen. There’s the dark Dockworker’s Union at Disco Elysium and the Orbital Workers Union in Tacoma going into space; then there’s Lynx, the evil alliance-bashing team in Hardspace: Shipbreaker. Soon we can add A Line Held Tight, a brilliant book that puts workers’ rights – and workers’ lives – at the center of the story.

In the future, many miners dig beneath the surface of a distant world, looking for veins of strange rock, protected from the deadly gas inside giant mech suits. But the working environment is difficult and if danger is approaching, the unpopular worker named Canary must decide whether or not to stand with her colleagues and fight against oppression. The actor, of course, takes on the role of Canary, managing personal and political conflicts in a world created in a terrible monochrome.

Despite the obvious parallels with the miners’ strike in 80s Britain, the Humble Grove trio were inspired by events closer to home. “My interest in labor unionism stems from the interest in our industry that is increasingly affected by layoffs,” says co-founder Cel Davison. “People who write sci-fi generally fall into two categories: those who are interested in writing about the fictional future and those who use future settings to tell stories that are relevant to the present.”

Using a highly customizable game engine He saysThe game offers a dynamic story driven by player choices. Canary has a difficult personal relationship with the mine, a relationship with its leaders, which the player must understand. “We are very interested in the internal processes and conflicts within the group, how they can make or break the political group.” Our protagonist in Canary starts out as a non-political person, but finds himself in situations where he has to decide what he loves and who he loves.

Although the game is set in the distant future on a foreign land, its elements are rooted in British history. This is a traditional folk song, recorded by the Humble Grove duo, Davison and Beck Michalak, who both play at community gatherings in Yorkshire where mining and harmony music is common. The game’s graphics resemble charcoal drawings that give it a charming, almost Victorian feel. “We got the original idea from the wonderful coal carvings at the Wakefield Coal Mining Museum,” says Davison. “Charcoal sounds like coal, and having a familiar nature makes people feel better, but when we worked with it, we found that it can create beautiful and magical images.

Humble Grove’s first game No Longer Home was a thoughtful meditation on moving house and letting go; it looks like A Line Held Tight will take a similar meditative approach. This time, the themes are more familiar than Humble Grove can imagine. “I hope it helps people think about how their everyday actions can affect politics,” Davison says. “If I’m being honest I hope it will get more people to join the union.”