“Digital Content for a Generation that Will Live to Witness the End Times” Nostalgia and Social Change in Demagog Studio's Post-Apocalyptic Meta-Communication

This article considers the aesthetics and nostalgic discourses found in the post-apocalyptic gameworlds portrayed by Serbian indie game developer Demagog Studio as well as examines the public performances and interviews of its CEO, Igor Simić, as signs of extra-game communication and meta-communication processes, respectively. Adding to its framework the concepts of Empire and Multitude, as well as drawing on literature on the politics and aesthetics of the post-communist trend known as Yugonostalgia, this article carries out an aesthetic and narratological close-reading analysis of a direct play of Demagog Studio’s games and of examples of the studio’s promotional content. As a result, this analysis argues that these extra-game and meta-communication processes not only turn the studio’s games into survival manuals – that intend to prepare players to meet the needs of the upcoming apocalypse – but also aim to help players read the signals present in contemporary events and digital culture.