This project is a collaboration between Joshua Gundlach and Ariel Jacob.
The Story
An art game about a jewish teenager, Levi who has developed a crush on his male classmate. Over the course of the eight days of Channukah, he discovers what it means to be queer in jewish spaces and jewish in queer spaces.
Judaism is something you do, and its heart is in the home. When he feels rejected by his jewish classmates for his questioning sexuality, he wishes to distance himself from the religion and culture. When his mother reacts with patience and an open ear, he eventually feels safe to tell her about his crush and his anxiety around it. Together they embark on a journey of literary exploration, seeking out books that can show alternative, queer affirming interpretations of the Torah.
Levi also grows closer to his twin sister, Miriam, who is the first to figure out that he might be gay. She becomes his confidant. Miriam has her own struggles too, feeling disconnected from the gendered expectations she as a teenage girl faces. She wants to bend the rules, wants to wear a kippa to synagogue, wants to play rough and laugh loudly. While Levi is the protagonist, he also witnesses how his own exploration of his place in the world also inspires his sister to do the same in her own way.
There is also David, Levi’s uncle. He is a trucker and spends most of his time on the road. But when his sister, Levi’s mother Shoshana, tells him that Levi is in a little identity crisis, he arranges to spend more time with the family and be there for the boy.
David does not live a very observant life. He works on Shabbat, he avoids going to synagogue, much to the annoyance of the children’s father. But he is also kind, funny and stands up for the children. He brings them treats and listens.
Uncle David sympathises greatly with Levi and stands up for him when things get rough. Because not everyone is as understanding in the family…
While his mother, uncle and sister are very understanding and supportive in their own ways, Levi’s father Nathan flies off the handle at just the mention of there being a gay boy in his class. Levi needs to make the difficult choice of wether or not to tell him about his questioning of his sexuality and wether he can trust him with something so personal and private.
His father spends all day working, then comes home to have a beer and relax. He has a short temper and the children are tense, witnessing his anger and lack of understanding for them growing up and questioning authority.
Lastly there is of course also the larger community that the family is part of. Levi is not sure how they would react to him disclosing his sexuality and he is also not sure if he wants to find out. It is a conservative community and at least the other children are not very kind about it.
The Game
Hineini is a blend of the Visual Novel and Point and Click genres. With a focus on dialogue and exploration, the game is all about the people, their relationships and the spaces they inhabit. With an isometric doll-house aesthetic, inhabited by simple human figures, the viewers eye is drawn to the richly detailed world that Levi inhabits.
At this time, it is available to play in the browser, including partial support for mobile, as well as in a downloadable format.
It was created in the Unity Game Engine as Ariel Jacob’s Bachelor project at the Central Saint Martins University in London, U.K.
