Look. If Deep Space 9 taught me anything, it’s that a filthy space station can’t exist without a little gambling. So it goes in Citizen Sleeper, a risk-driven RPG in which you roll the dice every time you wake up.
Citizen Sleeper, which was shown during today’s PC Gaming presentation, is a dice placement game similar to Dicey Dungeons or Tharsis. You roll a set of dice at the start of each cycle—dice that may be assigned to various events or challenges. As you go through this cosmic mystery, you’ll have to make your own decisions about which events take precedence.
All of the action happens on The Eye, a big, bustling station filled with bars, marketplaces, docks, and sleazy underbelly. As a Sleeper, you’re roused from your slumber on a regular basis to perform odd duties, but with each cycle, you also have the opportunity to flee. As you fight the system, you’ll confront not just police tracking you down, but also your own deteriorating body, which was constructed with “planned obsolescence.”
All of this is painted in bright, comic-book colors, with neon-colored figures set against an austere, utilitarian station and the great vastness of space. Citizen Sleeper’s universe seeks to explore roleplay among the ashes of intergalactic capitalism in the hopes that one day you’ll be able to escape completely.
Citizen Sleeper will be available on PC in 2022.
