After spending five years directing some of the most popular and controversial video games ever made, most notoriously “Grand Theft Auto,” Navid Khonsari went on vacation. His family had left Iran for Canada shortly after the 1979 revolution and 27 years later, in 2006, he wanted to go back.

“When I went to Iran, I knew there was a huge gaming population, but I didn’t expect to find them in the remote, extreme areas out on the border,” Khonsari told Al-Monitor.

“I went to a remote burial ground, and the next thing I know there were all these kids and they all knew my name. They were saying ‘You’re Iranian, you’ve worked on 'Grand Theft Auto' … someone like you gives us hope that we can do something similar ourselves.’”

His trip coincided with the explosion of Facebook, just before it was blocked in Iran. He said, “I was slammed with friend requests from Iranians sending me their work.” This was the beginning of a network of Iranian artists, writers and avid gamers, who with Khonsari and his wife, documentary filmmaker Vassiliki Khonsari, have created a video game about the Iranian revolution. Last month, they launched an ambitious Kickstarter campaign to move the prototype of “1979 Revolution” into full production.