Science fiction often isn’t really about the future. It’s a reflection of our present, how today’s anxieties and issues might be represented tomorrow.
Citizen Sleeper is a game about an android in a space station, overthrowing a corrupt corporation, and finding a home. But it’s also a game about identity, about capitalism, and about trans experience. And now, with the third and final arc of its DLC released today, it’s a game that explores refugees too.
Indeed, solo developer Gareth Damian Martin told me “the game is intended to be about now, as opposed to about the future”. That seems particularly pertinent when the game has been nominated for four BAFTAs, including British Game and Game for Impact. It’s something the developer admitted to feeling uncomfortable about.
“It’s a very weird position to be in because it feels like a bit of a veiled compliment,” they said. “As in, it kind of implies strange things about what games are. What does it mean for a game by a non-binary person that is about trans experience, that is about the gig economy, that is about citizenship and refugees? And to be the best British game in a year? Do I even want to be part of a project that is about sticking all those things under a flag and celebrating them because they’re under that flag? It makes me feel very uncomfortable. That stuff’s complicated.”
Ahead of Thursday’s BAFTA Game Awards I spoke with Damian Martin about the intimate human stories in Citizen Sleeper, what prompted the exploration of refugees, and whether more stories of warmth and compassion in the coldness of space are on the way.
What inspired the refugee story in the three-part DLC?
It was originally a concept that I had in the mix for the base game: there’s a reason there’s that big gap in The Eye and I wanted to have a refugee flotilla there very early on. That fell to the wayside during making the game. It just didn’t quite fit in, but when I came to thinking about adding more to the game, I loved the idea of ships arriving at The Eye and that instigating something. Also I really wanted to begin to introduce people to the world outside of The Eye, or at least to start people thinking ‘What is this solar system? How does the universe work?’ But those are very mechanical game design reasons.