Today, citizen sleeper Studio Jump Over The Age announced Purge, the third and final narrative expansion to be added to the game on March 30th. This update ends what creator Gareth Damian Martin calls a “semi-sequel” to the original release, but as we found out in a discussion on Purge, this doesn’t appear to be the end of the Citizen Sleeper universe entirely.
For the uninitiated, citizen sleeper is a narrative RPG set on Erlin’s Eye, a devastated space station home to a community of interstellar misfits and outcasts desperate to make a living. You can read more about the base game here, but for now let’s focus on Episode 3, the latest in a series of free updates designed to end this era citizen sleeper.
The previous two installments, Flux and Refuge, both explored complex new stories with fresh and returning faces – Flux revolves around a flotilla of refugees who have arrived on Erlin’s Eye, and Refuge ties into the events of Flux and allows you to explore the Refugee Flotilla to explore and meet new characters. Although Martin is extremely cautious about exactly what will unfold in Purge (the delight of citizen sleeper is the story after all) we know that the expansion will bring that arc to a conclusion.
While Citizen Sleeper is a fully realized game with multiple branching narratives, it was just a dip in the ocean of universe that Damian Martin wants to create, and this trio of DLC pieces represents just the first step. We’re getting ready to launch assembled from Episode 3 with Damian Martin to look back citizen sleeper as a whole, the choice to expand certain story beats into DLC, and what comes next for this dynamic and immersive sci-fi universe they created.
“I love universes big enough to hold different types of media and it’s really exciting to be in this moment where I have this thing that people actually like,” they tell us. “There’s all this dangling teasing and threads to pick up on later and a plethora of places to pick up the story. I’d like to see people two or three years later saying, ‘Oh wait, these things are connected.'”
The plan to evolve citizen sleeper was always on the move, but Damian Martin used the “full” base game to essentially test the concept and see how players found it:
“I wanted to make the simplest form of the game that can sell the idea and make sure people understand what I’m trying to do, while also using my time efficiently if it doesn’t work out,” Damian Martin tells us. “I was pleasantly surprised to find out how many people could handle it because I thought it was a very niche game.”
Damian Martin explains that the plan to create this series of expansions was based on two things. One was to limit the scope citizen sleeper to win people over to the idea, and on the other hand from a strong, personal love for stories and worlds – like those in mass effect And destiny 2 – who build even after the original story seems complete.
“Upon launch, I immediately greenlit the DLC in my mind for two reasons – first, I love ongoing stories and serial narratives that allow the world to live with you a bit. I wanted to see if I could convey that feeling to a story that evolves over time,” says Damian Martin.
“Second, I wanted to point that out citizen sleeper is a long-term project. Some indie games you play for six or eight hours and they’re great, but that’s it, you never go back. So these episodes felt like the best to keep the momentum going and see where we can go with that.
Damian Martin tells us that this design choice is heavily inspired by tabletop games, which often allow players to branch off and explore different paths and uncover plots that belong to a larger, overarching story.
“If you want something to happen in a video game, you have to develop a system for it. In tabletop games, you can improvise, characters you make up suddenly become main characters, and I wanted to find a way to bring that energy and structure to a video game,” they tell us.
“What I love about tabletop roleplaying games is that players can go anywhere they want and they can [game master] must submit to give them a story. I wanted to bring that sentiment into play, so that having a drink at Tyler’s bar leads to a relationship with Tyler, but it all comes from just going there for a drink.
citizen sleeper is driven by the characters you meet and the conversations that take place, but Damian Martin says making game-changing decisions in dialogue feels unusual for her. This is reflected in their experiences with tabletop roleplaying games – conversations are not big hot spots for players, but where to go, what to do and who to do it with is very important.
“I think dialogue choices are great expressive choices, but the choices I make that affect my life usually revolve around what I do with my time, what I show up for, the people I help or respond to “, explain it. “That’s why I was very interested in a system in which decisions are made by the player almost unconsciously. There are many things available to you, but you only have a limited amount of time. Players automatically prioritize in their heads and make choices that feel natural to them as opposed to made-up choices. I try to encourage players to just go with their gut and see where it takes them.”
Damian Martin describes some of the more visceral, personal experiences that inspired the narrative of citizen sleeper, how to feel out of place or exposed, and how they wanted to incorporate that into the characters and stories. It’s fair to say that it’s these kinds of stories that will form part of their thinking for the future of this up-and-coming series.
“I really wanted to make a game that would be about a lot of the things that I’ve been thinking about for the last 10 years, things that were really important to me, and things that I intuitively recognized at some level, where they were important to people of my generation and our experiences,” explains Damian Martin.
“The idea of [rolling dice to choose actions]and randomness and risk, and then the risk of precariousness and existing in a subordinate position in society and trying to survive, those things kind of slid together.”
While you can end up in some sticky (excuse the pun) situations citizen sleeper Due to low number rolls, the story goes on. Damian Martin emphasizes the importance of keeping the narrative flowing (sorry, that’s another pun) and avoiding a “game over”.
“What I’ve learned as a GM is that you should never give the player a choice where the poor outcome isn’t interesting or doesn’t advance the story,” they explain. “I tried to make that rule for myself in Citizen Sleeper as well. I wanted to feel that failure still drives things and in some cases is more interesting than success.”
Purge is the third and final installment of post-launch DLC content citizen sleeper, and the download is free for existing players. Flux and Refuge are also available for free, so make sure you fix them before venturing into Purge and uncovering the mysterious “End”. citizen sleeper has in stock.
If our conversation with Damian Martin has revealed anything, though, it’s that her universe has many, many more stories to tell. Serving as a mini-sequel, this trilogy is just one story unraveling in this complex, dystopian setting, and you may even forget about some of the heavenly breadcrumbs left for you by your mischievous game master.
Purge is scheduled to land on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows on March 30th. citizen sleeper is available with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
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RPG IN THE RUINS OF INTERPLANETARY CAPITALISM Citizen Sleeper is a narrative role-playing game set on Erlin’s Eye, a devastated space station home to thousands of people trying to survive on the fringes of an interstellar capitalist society. You are a sleeper, a digitized human consciousness in an artificial body owned by a corporation that wants you back. Clash among the Eye’s unfamiliar and colorful denizens, you must form friendships, earn your keep, and navigate the factions of this strange metropolis if you hope to survive to see the next cycle. LIFE ON ERLINS EYE An abandoned station on the edge of a system in crisis. Now it’s held together by anarchic alliances, ailing factions, and a shared desire to be free from corporate control. DO THE WORK. GET PAID. SURVIVE. In each cycle, you decide what to do with your time. Forge or break alliances, uncover truths and escape your hunters. Survive and ultimately thrive, one cycle at a time. MEET FOR FRIENDS The Eye hosts characters from all walks of life. Miners, engineers, hackers and more – each has a story. You decide who you help and shape your future together. GET ACCESS TO YOUR SECRETS Hack the station’s cloud to access data, new areas and secrets. This is your power and it can change your future. Company secrets, malicious AIs and treasure troves of lost data await you. YOU WERE MADE TO DIE FOR Essen-Arp: For you, you are just another enrichment in your sheer never-ending portfolio. Escape the makers of your decaying body and carve your own path in a fantasy-rich sci-fi world. INSPIRED BY TABLETOP RPGS Citizen Sleeper uses dice, clocks and drives to create a player-driven experience where you choose your path in a rich and responsive world. CITIZEN SLEEPER EPISODES This free post-launch episodic content introduces new characters and locations in an expanded storyline. Staying true to Citizen Sleeper’s TTRPG roots, these three episodes feature a rich campaign module that tells the longest and most complex story yet seen in the game. In the first episode, FLUX, the first ships in a fleet of refugees arrive at Erlin’s Eye in response to pressure in the Helion system. Now, in REFUGE, a strange event is sending ripples through the communities of the Eye. You will join the flotilla to try to understand this new threat and help the refugees stabilize their community. The story of the flotilla, the FLUX event and your Sleeper will conclude in the third episode, due out in early 2023.
