A fantasy game that is all too real

May 28, 2026 - 20:47

"There was a Sri Lankan place, not many in Seattle, that opened up during the pandemic," video game developer Chandana Ekanayake recently recalled. "Food was excellent. I got to support this place as much as possible. They lasted a year and had to shut down, which was unfortunate."

He remembered a Vietnamese spot where he would overtip, just hoping it would stay open. "I love this place. It's close to the house. And I would make sure we're spending more than we probably should. But I want to make sure that they are also staying around, and luckily, they are."

Those hardships have shaped Ekanayake's work as the co-founder and creative director of Outerloop Games. The struggles of small businesses, the weight of the economy, the pressures of capitalism, and the lives of people whose cultures are being absorbed into the broader North American landscape all feed into his approach. The studio aims to create games that empathize, sympathize, and reflect the reality of what is happening in the world, while still searching for a sense of good and justice for marginalized people going through extremely tough times.

Outerloop's latest release is Dosa Divas, a role-playing game that came out last month for consoles and PC. It tells the interactive story of sisters Samara and Amani and their food truck, which doubles as a mech called Goddess. Players fight corporate lawyers and cops in turn-based combat, gather ingredients from the environment to cook dishes, and try to make amends with old friends, coworkers, and family members after being away for a decade. It is a game about all those hardships and what people can actually do about them. It hit me hard.