game news How a Fake Scorsese Movie Brought Real Video Games to Life
“Goncharov was inexplicably ahead of his time and his contribution to cinema is remarkable.” And yet he never existed.
1973, in Naples. Goncharov, mafia anti-hero in Martin Scorsese’s eponymous feature film, has made a name for himself among the local bandit clique. But he will soon embark on the same tragic path experienced by all the slightly too bold and vengeful protagonists of dark films in such aggressive epics that here border on the homoerotic. Unhappy in his marriage to the cunning Katya, he falls victim to the betrayal of his best friend Andrei and dies at her hands. Or was it more her lover? Maybe both at the same time? It’s not that important. In fact, anything that can be said about Goncharov, whatever comes to mind, can indeed be considered canonical. Because in reality Goncharov does not really exist.
Goncharov, the greatest mafia movie that never was
However, we found a renowned actor to portray the features of Goncharov. The unofficial poster is stamped “greatest mafia movie of all time“, Robert De Niro is surrounded by other heavyweights of the ’70s industry : Al Pacino, John Cazale, Gene Hackman, Cybill Shepherd and Harvey Keitel. Neither of these actors appeared in front of the camera, which was directed by Scorsese, who also never saw Goncharov’s script, although he probably would have liked it. The pitch seems to be based directly on historical models: The Godfather, French connection etc Chinatown. This complete invention, which at first was really just a game between friends, experienced what is known as a containment breach; Expression used when a meme or other internet trend leaves the microcosm of a social network and is reversed on a number of platforms or even in the columns of journalistic media. Goncharov was actually born on Tumblr, the microblogging site.
It all started with a pair of boots that instead of a brand logo on the tongue had the writings of a fake Martin Scorsese movie sewn on.. From this oddity, another user, beelzeebub, invents a mass-circulated poster. And then Goncharov becomes a community experience in its own right, with each volunteer member suggesting a piece of history, a character trait, or even specific lines of dialogue. We imagine De Niro dropped the following punch lines when the mine closed: “It weighs on a man, you know? Live in a place he could never own”, “My people are dead, but so are these bastards“, or “Hope is a chain that connects a man’s waist to a clock that keeps ticking“We created a recurring motif for the film, namely a pocket watch, which symbolizes the passage of time and the decadence that comes with it. Even stronger, a musical theme is composed for the occasion. And to go further, let’s imagine the reception and criticism that the production would deserve.
Archive of Our Own, a fanfiction site, has over 450 works under the Goncharov label. There are also a few dozen meta-analyses on this topic. But what interests us here is the Game Jam that emerges from this crazy fiction.
Scorsese’s Game Jam
Think of the principle of a game jam. This is an event where programmers, designers and artists try to create a video game from scratch, sometimes around a specific theme. The itch.io platform offers countless of them every year. Autumn Chen, the organizer of the Goncharov Game Jam, which started in late 2022, writes via email to Inverse: “Interactive fiction is often a way of exploring alternate paths in a story and imagining different ways events can unfold, which is perfect for a story without a central canon like GoncharovGoncharov itself is already interactive fiction, Inverse suggests: “The goal is to create the details of this fake Scorsese film, which is accomplished through mechanics of individuals publishing their own supplements and participating in fandom community building“. There are 32 offers available on the itch.io website. All types of games are recommended, but text-based adventures tend to dominate.
In Save Goncharov For example, in a game that fits on a page written by Frederic Walker, you play an archivist who receives an incredible gift: a box of materials for the production of the lost mafia film. How you catalog the individual items is up to you. On his side, Goncharov escapes gives you the chance to slip in as the protagonist in a frantic one-command text chase where you can choose to watch the ad expire or act quickly at your own risk. 8 different endings are at stake. even braver GONCHAROV – THE MAFIA HIGH SCHOOL DATING SIMULATOR is, as the name suggests, a short dating game in which you play fifteen-year-old Goncharov, who is starting his first day at mafia school.
There is also a somewhat sluggish shooter in the game, Goncharov: Streets of Naplesin which we invite you to relive”the iconic shooting scene from the film in the streets of Naples“. But the most popular achievement is The Greatest Mafia Movie Ever Made A single-sided tabletop RPG in which you take on the roles of several characters from the film, assigning them specific quirks and goals before improvising a story ruled by the law of the dice.
“You are the characters in one of the many legendary and unreleased expansions to GONCHAROV (1973), the greatest mafia film of all time, and winter has arrived in Naples, Italy… Assemble your cast to bring your own dramatic twist to the story.” Storytelling and crime, passion and desire, and maybe even a little humanity.
The structure of The Great Mafia Movie is a story of rise and fall. Of gaining and losing status, power, wealth, respect, or even love. It is often a tragedy. Make your fortune, claim your city, then face your pride and indulge in one final cinematic act. In the end, sometimes it’s death that makes you immortal.
We also mention CENSORED by Goncharov, a walking sim/visual novel in which you spend happily ever after in the company of your tender lover Andrey, away from mafia shenanigans, before the past catches up with you. We invite you to discover so many testimonies of collaborative creativity born from a simple pair of boots. The term “Goncharov” appearing on the shoe actually appears to be just a typo from Gomorrah (2008)., a film that Martin Scorsese had endorsed for its US release. When asked by his daughter Francesca Scorsese about this famous Goncharov, Scorsese humorously replied: “Yes. I made this film years ago (In French : “Yes. I made this film years ago“). An exchange via SMS shared on the data subject’s TikTok account.
