Speculative fiction often puts the lens back on the reader, making the previously unknown known by turning it into a story.
From Star Trek exploring new frontiers of romance to Octavia Butler putting black women at the forefront of humanity’s exodus into space, it has long been used as a vehicle for expression. A young woman’s desire to change the world by burning it down.
My name is Lindsay Ishihiro. Narrative of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist As her designer, I would like to talk to you about how our game follows this tradition. Players themselves and their gender, sexuality, and relationships in video games.
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a mixed genre game about growing up in an extrasolar colony. Part-life simulators, deck builders, role-playing games, dating simulators, and more. You play Sol, a child whose parents are dissatisfied with life on a dying Earth and are sent into space with the goal of creating a new human culture from scratch on the planet Vertumna IV.
Given absolute freedom, what would a group of idealists keep and reject from human culture? will you come?
Exocolonist’s simple character creation system far exceeds its weight class. I have only two questions. What is the pronoun for Sol? Also, do they become masculine, androgynous, or feminine?
The UI for selecting Sol’s appearance is also a slider instead of three buttons, allowing players to say if their Sol is “slightly” masculine or feminine.
They/them are included in the standard pronoun selection, but players who prefer a more bespoke experience can be taught to use the correct pronouns and other gender terms. In space, anyone can be a Faye/Fayself.
You don’t need gender-changing items or cursed fountains, and you can even change your pronouns and appearance at any time.
Sol’s anatomy is set in late adolescence, but thanks to futuristic medical technology, there are even Sol options that have no reproductive anatomy at all. It allows for a huge spectrum of possible genders, including binary and non-binary trans bodies, and many types of gender non-conforming bodies.
Even teenage exocolonists have to deal with gruesome lectures in school. I’m sorry, young people of the universe!
Sol wasn’t the only child born in space. Her nine other children grew up with Sol, all of whom (and one more) are potential friendships and love interests.
Get the bare minimum I can think of: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is proud to feature transgender and non-binary characters, and is a , aromatic and even polyamory relationships.
With a diverse team, we knew that telling a story about the richness of the human experience would require a radical overarching look at the characters and how they interact with players and other characters.
And they interact with each other! Sol’s friends fall in love, hurt each other, experience their own tragedies, and even die. Choose the important parts that you play.
Sol approaches his friends by giving them gifts and saying the right things, but he can also be the kind of person you’d want to be friends with. Sharing and participating in their stories brings them closer together, just like in real life.
Also, just like in real life, friendships can develop into something else.
I Was A Teenage Exocolonist has triggers unique to every relationship. Yes, some people still need 10 hearts before kissing, but some people are happy to make space beasts with two (sometimes three) backs while getting to know each other. Characters in the department need to step up at important times in their lives in order to open up to you and feel comfortable. Some need to finish their life’s work first. Some people naturally like to date other people, so it takes extra effort to get Sol interested.
Thanks to Wormhole Weirdness, Sol relives his teenage years over and over again, learning from his mistakes and helping humanity find their place in the stars. You will be many Sols over many lifetimes.
Accurately representing players in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is integral to the experience of being Sol, giving them a sense that their unique selves are important to humanity as a whole.
It was essential to tell a story about finding yourself literally at the forefront of mankind’s most collective action.
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist launches on PS4 and PS5 on August 25, 2022. add to wishlist today!
