It will be available on PC, PlayStation and Switch on August 25, 2022. I Was A Young Excolonist, a life sim RPG with card game mechanics. This adventure will take us to a distant planet, a small community trying to create a new home for humanity.
It’s not yet time to tell you what we think of this experience: but what we’ve told you, we can share with you some details about the development of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. Sarah NorthwayGame Design and Direction, which we were able to interview at Northway Games.
Sarah created the team North Road Games with her husband, but has been managing alone for several years. The team has created several games such as Fantastic Contraption, Word Up Dog, Incredipede, Rebuild series and Deep Under the Sky. But I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is Sarah’s most ambitious project, and there’s a lot to explore.
So let’s not waste any more time and see ours Interview with Sarah Northway on I was a Teenage Exocolonist.
How will we grow in the future
Q: We know that some of the main themes of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist are exploration and discovery. It is hard not to think that you have traveled the world and discovered a lot. Do you think your travels affect the game? And if so, how?
A: Yes! The natural environment of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, travel to remote areas Central America and Southeast Asia. From forests to coral reefs, some of the strange plants and creatures I’ve encountered on Earth may have come from an alien planet.
Q: Are literature and cinema among the inspirations for I Was a Teenage Exocolonist? If so, what works do you think inspire you the most?
A: i love science fiction and I grew up with Star Trek. I like the idea of a future utopian humanity where there are no inequalities and money is no longer needed. The characters of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist unfortunately do not come from such a universe, but they were inspired by science fiction writings to imagine a better future, so they built a ship and set about creating it.
Q: We know that I Was a Teenage Exocolonist will be an experience divided into quite different “stages”: What are the main emotions you want to evoke in the various parts of the game?
A: The beginning of the game is an innocent time when the character is 10 to 13 years old. He is mostly positive and optimistic, spending his time learning and exploring. The adults of the colony promise that nothing bad will ever happen, and you believe it.
With pubertyBetween the ages of 14 and 16, independence is gained and it turns out that this is not quite true. There are many dangers on the planet Vertumna that adults cannot protect you from. It brings great mayhem, new characters and new challenges. It’s an exciting time, full of energy, danger and excitement. Spend time discovering who you are and focusing on your path.
When you are an adult between the ages of 17 and 19, the tone of the game becomes visibly darker. Now it’s up to you, the next generation, to decide what happens to your colony. You may find yourself at war with the planet or the colonial government, and your friends are no longer innocent children as they used to be, but have become marked and cynical.
Q: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is an interesting mix of genres: a visual novel, an RPG, and a deck building; Was it always like this when you first designed the game? Or is it something the game has turned into?
A: Yes! I’ve tried mixing many genres together, the narrative is always in the center. Before deciding what the card game would be, I knew that the cards in the deck would represent memories created during narrative events. Likewise, I wanted the skills you acquire while working or going to school to influence your choices in narrative events. During development, the narrative expanded a lot more than I originally expected, becoming like an explorable and replayable open world. You will only see a small portion of the text in each lifetime.
Q: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is published by Finji, while Northway Games has always self-published in the past. How did you find this experience different and how did it help you with publisher development?
A: Exocolonist is my biggest game and I’m aiming to release a console at launch for the first time (we’re releasing on PC/Mac/Linux as well as Switch and PS4/PS5). I admit that Northway Games has always been bad at marketing, and our friends at Finji had the experience I missed. It was such a relief not to have to carry all this responsibility alone!
NRAMA: We know it’s like asking what your favorite kid is, but we’re still asking you: Of all the characters in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, which one do you like the most and why?
A: I love the shy emo boy Dys. I drew it thinking of my pessimistic adolescence and some of my friends. marginalized and resentful because of their low position in the social hierarchy. I wanted a character that could be liked – a sullen dramatic man in black – but could also represent a more frightening kind of introvert and disgruntled young man. Comparable to a slim [ndr, termine che letteralmente si traduce con “celibe involontario” e ha valore negativo] or a terrorist. Considering the way co-writer Lindsay Ishihiro and I wrote Dys, I expect actors to either hate or love it, and that’s what makes it interesting.”
Q: Both musically and visually, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist enjoyed the support of many collaborators who composed the music and helped create the cards. What was it like researching and collaborating with so many artists?
A: It sure is. rewarding he works with many different collaborators, especially young novice artists. Letting them try and use their own style isn’t something that happens often enough in games! It was so much fun to see our characters through their eyes. And put together a soundtrack with many similar but different elements, with songs that reflect the diversity of seasons, ages, and people the main character can become.
S: From what we’ve seen of Vertumna, we can say it’s a big world full of life and culture. We were particularly impressed with the outfits: How would you describe the style of the characters’ outfits?
A: Our character artist Meilee Chao once described her outfits as “a holosexual’s dream, a queer style based on leather garments with visual kei splashes [ndr, genere musicale, nel filone del rock giapponese] “But it also has a bohemian and hippie feel to it with traditional fabrics and patterns. Because this is a transitional society that has left a futuristic and cyberpunk Earth and returned to a low-key agrarian culture. Like teenagers, our characters use fashion to reflect their identities and show where they fit on the spectrum.
Q: Please complete the following sentence: If you like it [videogioco 1, videogioco 2…] then you will love I was a Teenage Exocolonist!
A: If you like narrative RPGs like Disco Elysium or Citizen Sleeper, card games like Griftlands or Signs of the Sojourner, or life simulations like Princess Maker or Growing Up, you’ll love I Was a Teenage Exocolonist!
Source: Multiplayer
