Red Matter is set in a dystopian near future where the world is divided in two large main factions: the Atlantic Union and the People’s Republic of Volgravia
These two superpowers have profound economic and political differences. The tension between both of them is a state of geopolitical tension, a Cold War.
We really wanted to distance ourselves from actual History and invent a dystopian fantasy with two completely make-believe factions. This would allow us to manipulate and create characters and plots that will surprise players.
Just like in games such as Papers, Please, we leverage historical and visual references to establish a familiar setting for players, but from thereon out, we set up an alternative fictional universe. Volgravia is a fabrication completely removed from familiar soviet republics, although it does share aesthetic and ideological discourse elements with them. You could venture that Volgravia is to USSR what Game of Thrones is to Medieval Europe.
As with every cold war, both countries don’t engage in any kind of direct, armed confrontation. They’re well aware that such a confrontation would lead to the destruction of both factions. Their rivalry is centered around psychological warfare, massive propaganda campaigns, espionage and technological contest such as the Space Race.