Velvet 89: 2025 Small/Indie Game Winner
Finding People, Understanding Revolution
“The smog is terrible, but the regime is worse,” declares Marie, a 17-year-old punk protesting in 1989 Czechoslovakia. She’s one of over 45 characters hidden in the crowds of Velvet 89, this year’s Small/Indie category winner of the 2025 GEE! Learning Game Awards. Created by Charles Games as part of the Stories of Injustice project, this hidden object game uses Where’s Waldo mechanics to explore the 1989 Czech protests.
Velvet 89 spreads six protests across five cities, tracking how ecology demonstrations grew into revolution. Players search sketch-like crowds for specific people—find one with a red scarf, or thick boots—then read their 1-3 sentence testimony. “When my son got back from Prague with his head smashed and bandaged, I realized what they were capable of!” explains Petr, a miner. “Twenty years in the pit, and that’s what I get?”
The game creates empowered learners through search mechanics. Scrutinizing hundreds of cut-out figures to spot your target builds investment. When you find them, the click feels earned, making testimonies rewards. Protests grow from small environmental gatherings to massive Prague demonstrations.
Players pan and drag the scene freely, choosing which protesters or authorities to find. “I love nature, and when I see what the regime is doing to it, I feel sick!” shares Ivo, a pharmacist. “My friends and I are trying to protect nature, but it’s not enough—there needs to be big changes.” Each found person adds their perspective.
Paper cut-outs are mixed with historical footage, constructing a problem-based learning environment that grounds fictional testimonies in real events. Cutscene videos show real history, building the legitimacy of the stylized illustrations..
The game’s formula, skinning a hidden object mechanic with historical context and testimonies, works well where everyday voices matter more than political leaders. “Now you’re demonstrating, but then what? Thanks to the party, people have jobs and pensions,” argues Stanislav, a gatekeeper. “We’ve been watching this one for a while now. Maybe today, he’ll get reckless,” observes Václav from the secret police. Even Marta, a machinist, admits conflict: “The Communists take pretty good care of us workers,” but adds, “they explained to me that after so many years I would get to see my sister who had emigrated.”
If there’s a point to this gameplay, vs. reading a list of quotes in isolation, it’s the pacing and mundanity. Gameplay builds that sense of dissonance between the collective and the individual, as well as a sense of pacing. You see the crowds, their moods, and the personas.
Individual stories compound into creating deep understanding. Environmental concerns become revolutionary fuel when combined with police brutality and family separations.
Velvet 89 is a good example of this formula in action: events with multiple perspectives, where individual concerns matter more than grand narratives, where ordinary grievances accumulate into extraordinary change. This approach could potentially work for other historical moments where everyday, individual voices matter more than political abstractions. Beaten children, destroyed forests, emigrated siblings.
Congratulations to Charles Games for proving hidden object games can deliver historical education. By focusing on why people took to the streets, Velvet 89 helps players understand that history happens when enough individuals decide staying home is no longer an option. The game makes you care about strangers from thirty-five years ago, one found person at a time.
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Thanks to category lead, Michael Douma (IDEA Games), and judges: Jenny Saucerman (CUNA), Sebastian Connette (Debuff Interactive), and Al Olsen (NYU CREATE Lab).