What is A Long Journey to an Uncertain End?
Games in which a starship full of ragtag scoundrels is on the run from the space police are nothing new in the gaming industry.
The fact that you're playing the ship itself is unusual, and the people you're transporting aren't the only ones who have a troubled history.
This is the premise of A Long Journey To An Uncertain End, a strategic management space opera about avoiding the relational problems of a 50-ton spacecraft.
Long Journey, which is now raising funds on Kickstarter, is a narrative space opera that marks the debut of developer Crispy Creative, which includes members of the Obsidian and Telltale Games teams, among others.
Moving from system to system while avoiding a dogged pursuer—though in this case, it's a jaded love interest—and each new world is an opportunity to pick up new crew members and take on jobs to help pay for the next jump forward in time.
Incorporating the concept of a sentient spaceship on the run from their ex (probably another enormous vehicle) is a delightfully absurd setting.
But, perhaps more crucially, the game's creator is taking a bold step forward in constructing a space opera that seems like an honest depiction of human diversity.
In a recent interview with Glass House Games, creative director Kylan Coats noted that, in his past roles, coming up with a character that was different from the standard always required some form of rationale.
Crispy responds by employing what they refer to as a “reverse justification diversity matrix” in order to ensure a healthy variety of identities.
Neither a cisgender nor a heterosexual character, nor can they be physically able or monogamous, according to Coats.
“Everyone has to be a little bit of something. ‘What do we make there?' and ‘How do we make characters who don't feel like tokenism?' were the starting points for thinking about what to make there.”
A Long Journey to an Uncertain End Gameplay
As Coats explains, the characters in the game are likewise based on real-life people who the development team has met. They are all supposed to be the type of people you'd want to go on a road trip with.
The inclusive approach to character creation should also feel more at home in the game's setting as a result of this.
For one thing, even if the Night City refused to accommodate your transsexual V, it didn't really matter that Cyberpunk had announced that it would allow for such a possibility.
A Long Journey to an Uncertain End Trailer
A Long Journey to an Uncertain End Kickstarter Target is completed
Long Journey has reached its $40,000 Kickstarter target and is now aiming for additional stretch goals, which include the addition of two new crew members and the inclusion of a Switch port.
Crispy aims to get the game out by the end of the year, and there's a free sample available on Steam and Itch.io for those interested.
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