Syrian turns his escape into a video game

SALZBURG: Abdullah Adnan Karam stares down at the computer screen and watches the story of his escape from war-torn Syria to his new home in Austria play out step by step as a game.

The 23-year-old left the northwestern city of Hama in 2014, crossed the border into Turkey then started the long and arduous trek through Europe.

A year later, after his arrival in Austria, he bumped into games developer Georg Hobmeier in Salzburg and the pair started working on what would become the PC/Mac game “Path Out”.

“What the player is kind of playing is part of my story, let’s say. My (personal) story had more action in it,” Karam told Reuters Television.

Karam provided the story and Hobmeier’s company Causa Creations, alongside Vienna-based firm Wobblersound and Austrian-American graphic designer Brian Main, worked on the technical side.

Players can choose different routes and meet different fates. “Remember guys, don’t get me killed,” Karam says in a promotional video.

The story starts before the war, letting players move Karam through his home, meeting friends and relatives, before the scene degenerates into a battlefield.

The United Nations envoy for Syria on Tuesday said a solution to the eight-year-long conflict begins with confidence building measures and reconciliation between warring parties.

“Path to a new Syria begins with confidence-building and reconciliation,” Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen said on Twitter.

“Syrians need to come together to decide and build (a) future,” he said.

His comments came after he visited the central Syrian city of Homs during his second official trip to the war-torn country since he assumed his post in January.

Pedersen met the governor of Homs, the UN team in the area as well displaced Syrians living in camps, he said.

“Scale of challenges facing #Syria and Syrians (is) immense,” he said.

The envoy also toured the former rebel stronghold of Baba Amr, which was recaptured by government forces in 2012 after almost a month of heavy shelling.

There has been little reconstruction in the district since the Syrian army seized the area.

“Level of destruction in Baba Amr is vast,” Pedersen said.

Agencies