GMing for over 100,000 Players in Citizen Sleeper’s First Free Episode

Hi, I’m Gareth Damian Martin, the (mostly) solo developer behind Citizen Sleeper. Today, we launch Episode: FluxThe first three episodes are free and will be available in the coming eight months. They introduce new characters and places to the game. This is part of an ongoing story you can influence through your choices.

Citizen Sleeper, if you don’t know already, is a tabletop inspired RPG where you are a sleeper, a digitized human consciousness in an artificial body, owned by a corporation that wants you back. You will need to make friends, gain your keeps, and navigate amongst all the colorful residents of the Eye if you want to live to the next cycle.

When making Citizen Sleeper I wanted to make a world that felt as open and flexible as a tabletop RPG, which is a challenge when you can’t be a GM (GM stands for Game Master, the person running the game) in the same room as players and react to their choices. stead I had to “pre-GM” by accounting for different player choices, providing a story with no “main campaign” only different characters to meet and work with, and use time-specific events to make the world feel alive and reactive.

In Episode: Flux I am taking this one step further by running a three episode “campaign” that will tell the longest and most complex story to be featured in the game to date. This story will follow a refugee flotilla arriving at the station. The player will be a major part of the events.

Making each episode successively will allow me to react to player’s feedback and opinions, just like a GM would, and tell a story with a variety of complications and wrinkles that will allow players to feel that their journey is distinct.

If that sounds like a journey you’d like to be on, the first update Episode: FluxIt launches today. So give it a go and then follow me on twitter @CitizenSleeper to let me know what you think.

I’m really excited to be undertaking this unique experiment with the game, and seeing how players react now, and when they reach the finale in 2023. Have fun with the Eye! Episode: Flux Xbox!

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NEW CITIZEN SLEEPER EPISODES
Citizen Sleeper will be receiving new story content via three FREE episodic updates, the first of which “FLUX”, arrives on July 28th.

The Episodes 2/3 are scheduled for release in October or early 2023, respectively. However, dates have yet to be determined.

EPISODE I: FLUX
The Eye has seen the first refugee flotilla ships arrive in FLUX due to pressures within the Helion system. You’ll meet those who make it to the station before they are quarantined.
The episodes will be a continuation of the Helion System’s story, which expands upon the overall narrative about the Star System in which the Eye orbits. New characters will be introduced in each episode, including Eshe.

Eshe is an indomitable and dedicated spacer whose fate gets entangled with that of the flotilla of refugees who have begun arriving at Eye. This story requires the player to decide how to handle a crisis growing that threatens the whole station.

ROLEPLAYING IN THE RUINS OF INTERPLANETARY CAPITALISM

From the developer of In Other Waters, and featuring the stunning character art of Guillaume Singelin, Citizen Sleeper is a narrative RPG set on Erlin’s Eye, a ruined space station that is home to thousands of people trying to survive on the edges of an interstellar capitalist society.

The corporation you are owned wants you to come back. You will need to make friends, gain your keeps, and navigate this bizarre metropolis if you want to live to the next cycle.

INSPIRETED BY TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAME
Citizen Sleeper makes use of dice, clocks, and drives to provide a player-driven experience where you can choose your own path within a rich, responsive world.

• ACTION DICE
Every cycle, you must roll your dice. The station offers many options for actions. Every action will have an impact on the lives of everyone around you.

• TICKING CLOCKS
The station’s clocks keep track of your and others actions. Clocks can track everything from helping a Yatagan friend to becoming a local at Overlook Bar, to how far you’ve come in your life.

• DRIVES + SKILLS
You can choose to follow drives and not quests. You will be able to shape the five skills of your character (Engineer Interface, Endure and Intuit), and unlock perks and bonus that can change and reflect how you live.