Based on an short story written in 2006, Black Powder | Red Earth has a rich backstory deeply rooted in the complex political and economic situation of modern day Iraq.

To understand this world and the potential avenues for gameplay within, Echelon engaged real-world intelligence + special operations service providers as well as Petroleum Industry veterans with extensive experience in Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

Team members were sent to the actual cities where the story events occurred to collect imagery, meet with local sources and experience the climate/culture of the region first hand.

Other groups were sent to specialized training centers around the US where they were able to go hands-on with a variety of weapon systems and vehicles in modern urban war fighting scenarios.

The team researched and identified the core audience for the title's subject matter. Echelon was able to use the data acquired from this research to identify specific age, gender and locale demographics of interest; extensive research into the gaming, entertainment and social networking habits of these demographics enabled us to work toward finding the 'sweet spot' catering to as many preferences as possible.

From this pool of experience and imagery, the team devised an action-thriller role playing game with a user experience familiar to existing Facebook gamers, but with unique features such as a professionally-written story mode, turn based combat and commentary(interviews with some of our sources).