We Grew Up in War

We Grew Up in War puts you face to face with Anna, Mak and Melisa, three kids whose childhoods got torn apart by war. You piece their lives back together by unpacking boxes of memories, working out what happened and when, and slowly building a picture of what it actually feels like to grow up under siege or get displaced again and again.

What makes this one properly stand out is that it’s not fiction dressed up as truth. Charles Games built it alongside the War Childhood Museum, using real testimonies from the Siege of Sarajevo and the ongoing war in Ukraine. You get over 20 little interactive moments, from fighting off imagined monsters to finding joy playing in a wrecked car, all pulled straight from what actual kids went through. The gameplay stays light on its feet, gentle puzzles and choices built around emotions rather than dialogue trees, which somehow makes the heavy stuff hit even harder.

Part of what you pay for this goes straight back to the War Childhood Museum’s work preserving these stories and getting them into schools and exhibitions around the world. It’s a game that treats kids as more than victims, showing how resilient and creative they can be even when everything around them falls apart.