Games That Reflect the World We Live In

Games are often treated as entertainment, something that kills time in a fun manner. However, they can also act as knowledge carriers when they inform you about matters you deal with everyday. From societal inequality and family expectations to state surveillance, migration and cultural memory, they invite players to make choices, sit with discomfort, and see familiar systems from a new angle, eventually training them for the world. Below are some games that use their mechanics to spark conversations about society.
 
Shasn
Launched in 2019, Shasn by filmmaker Anand Gandhi and tech specialist Zain Memon is a highly acclaimed board game. It acts as a mirror to modern society by placing players in the shoes of politicians who must manage resources, forcing the players to choose between standing by their moral ideals or moulding them strictly to gain power. A major unique point of the game is its dynamic area-control engine driven by heavily researched, country-specific campaigns (such as India and the US) where players face real-world problems in the game.
 
The Other Symmetries of an Absence
The Other Symmetries of an Absence is an interactive installation by Dhruv Jani. Launched in 2021, the game is concerned with civic life, dissent and the shrinking space for criticism in contemporary India, exploring how confinement turns suspicion between the state and its people into physical and social barriers, erasing individuals from public life and collective memory. Its distinctive format requires two players to share the experience, framing companionship and mutual presence as acts of resistance, solace and solidarity against political isolation.

Palace on the Hill
This slice-of-life adventure role-playing game addresses social inequality and rural hardship, showing how a young person from a marginalised background can pursue personal achievement, friendship, and cultural belonging despite economic pressure.  Developed with art direction by Mala Sen and programming by Mridul Kashatria, the game includes a hand-painted watercolour world inspired by Pahari miniature art and explores local history through these paintings.
 
Thirsty Suitors
Designed by Chandana Ekanayake, Thirsty Suitors is an action game. It follows Jala, a queer South Asian woman who returns home for her sister’s wedding and must confront former partners. It examines immigrant culture, intergenerational trauma, mental health, queer identity and the pressure to meet traditional family expectations, while treating reconciliation rather than simple romance as its central goal. The game combines turn-based combat framed as emotional confrontation with skateboarding, cooking and dialogue choices that shape Jala’s 'Thirstsona' identity.

Mantri Cards
Mantri Cards is a political 'Top Trumps' - style card game under the creative direction of Anuja Pitre. It features 100 Members of Parliament from the 17th Lok Sabha and uses publicly available data such as age, education, declared assets, criminal cases, parliamentary terms and vote share. The game addresses democratic awareness by making voters think beyond party labels and engage directly with the records and accountability of individual representatives. Its unique aspect is that it uses real electoral and affidavit data, QR codes linking players to PRS Legislative Research’s MP tracker, thus turning political literacy into a social game.
 
Athangudi: Artisans of Chettinad
Designed by Girin Nayak, Athangudi: Artisans of Chettinad highlights Tamil Nadu’s artisanal heritage and the social value of traditional craft. Players take the role of master artisans laying handmade Athangudi tiles across the floor of a grand Chettinad mansion, competing to create the most elegant patterns and earn the highest score. It features tile-placement and pattern-building mechanics inspired directly by real Athangudi tiles, while the collector’s edition includes 101 tiles individually hand-painted by artist Savita Iyer. 
 
Sinauli: Unearthed
This archaeological game is designed by Neha Mittal and illustrated by Amit Ghadge. The game puts players in the roles of competing archaeology professors excavating the real 4,000-year-old Sinauli burial site in Uttar Pradesh, hiring workers and racing to uncover artefacts before rivals. The game is a blend of accessible Eurogame strategy with Indian archaeological history, encouraging players to engage with how excavation, interpretation and legacy shape public understanding of the past.

Words Shruti Verma
Date 10.11.2026