See You, Space Sleeper.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is releasing at the end of the month, January 31—and as someone with a vested interest in the first game, I’m downright excited. The series’ creator, Gareth Damian Martin, has found a way to bring the vibes of a smaller-scale indie TTRPG to a videogame not once, but twice now. And you know I love those tasty, Blades In The Dark-style clocks.
Alas, it’s likely to be the last installment of the series—that’s as per a recent interview with Martin via Eurogamer. When asked if this’d be the final instalment, Martin replies that, as far as videogames go, “I think it is … I’ll leave myself a backdoor somewhere that I can climb through and dig it out the grave again. But no. I think especially the ending—and I hope people feel this when they reach the ending—I really felt like, okay, this is me saying the final word on it. I really like where I’m leaving it. I’m really happy with that.”
Still, that doesn’t mean Martin’s abandoning space entirely. They’re keen to make an actual TTRPG version of the game, which feels like a full-circle development, given where its inspirations start—and now end.
“Citizen Sleeper has meant a lot to a lot of people and so I’m not about to leave that behind. The next big project for me will be to work on a Citizen Sleeper tabletop game in full, but I need to find the right collaborator and I need to work that out, and I need to do that alongside other stuff. So that’s something that will be a more long-term project.”
As for what that “other stuff” is, turns out, Martin was actually cooking something before Citizen Sleeper 2 was a twinkle in their eye, and they’ll be returning to that once the sequel’s launched into the great beyond: “I was actually already pitching my next game [before], which was not Citizen Sleeper 2, to my publisher.”
As our resident Citizen Sleeper enjoyer, I’d say I’m sad to see it go, but during my own experiences with a preview back in June, I’m glad Martin is moving onto other things. Not because I think it’s bad, but because Citizen Sleeper 2 has moulded its set of mechanics into such a distinct vibe (especially compared to the first game) that I’m not sure if there are any worlds left to conquer. I’ve always been of the opinion that no band should only play the hits forever.
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