I grew up in Germany with a half-Indonesian mother, a woman whose own mother had been imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp. That meant being surrounded by anti-fascist sensibilities, with parents who were openly critical of Germany’s past, but I also had a grandfather who patented wunderwaffen for the Nazis. As a child I visited Dachau to confront and understand this past, deciding that I would rather die than be complicit in something like that ever happening again. Four decades later, I’m still glad that I am able to make that choice.

The world is complicated. We need to have nuanced discussions about complex issues, but we also owe it to ourselves and others to stand up and be counted, to be a fearless citizen – we should live a life thoroughly examined. We must educate ourselves, but we must also act accordingly.

I believe in the positive power of gaming. Games should challenge assumptions, champion causes, push people to reconsider who they are and what they stand for. Of course, they should also be fun, but games are more than entertainment: they’re a social phenomenon with genuine cultural impact. Lesser Evil is about making those statements proudly, giving a voice to the causes we support and presenting them in entertaining and meaningful ways. It is not a time to talk quietly.

I grew up in Kazakhstan (Almaty) in a Korean family but under the influence of a wide range of post Soviet cultures: Korean, Kazakh, Russian and more. Among other things, this meant a lot of pressure to perform and succeed, from school studies to a long list of extra-curricular activities. On top of that was a key social pressure – the drive to start a family young. This left precious little time for self-expression and discovery. Now I’m lucky enough to lead a different life, one where I can make my own decisions about how to spend my time without fear of social disapproval or judgement, one where I can choose my own path. I will never take this for granted. In my youth it seemed perfectly natural that people lived without freedom, without democracy, surrounded by corruption – it’s a life I could never go back to again. To be able to live a life without fear, expressing myself freely and contributing to a wider society of freedom and acceptance has been an incredible change, and one which I want to spread to all of those who have yet to experience it. I believe that games are an incredibly powerful way to encourage that change – a cultural medium for the 21st century. Lesser Evil believes that too.

Coming from a military family, war was ever present when I was growing up. My father was stationed on Cyprus, in Northern Ireland and as part of a tank battalion in the Gulf War. I spent my childhood growing up around heavy weapons, checking underneath the family car for bombs and going months without seeing my father. This upbringing instilled in me an understanding that military preparedness and armed conflict unfortunately are a reality of achieving peace and that we can’t wish away war with slogans. We all need to fight to preserve peace every day.