Welcome to No Escape’s coverage of LudoNarraCon! We’re covering the virtual convention celebrating narrative-heavy games this week. The con officially starts on Thursday, May 4, but today Fellow Traveller announced the new title from Copychaser Games, and we were able to take an early sneak peek at the demo!
There’s a certain degree to which I crave capital-R “Representation™” for journalists in various forms of media. To be clear, dramatized versions of journalists are fine, for the most part, but we’re portrayed as either full villains or sainted heroes, much to the detriment of our public perception. Less often seen is the daily life of a regular reporter.
I can’t claim that Times and Galaxy does this, as it’s set in a weird future where humanity isn’t alone in the universe, has become starfaring, and yet somehow still has DSLR cameras. But the vibes? So far the vibes are immaculate, my friends.
Times and Galaxy is an upcoming adventure game from Copychaser Games, creators of Speed Dating for Ghosts. In it, you play a Reporterbot, a robot that can interact with people and the environment like a journalist would, and you’re an intern for the Times and Galaxy, a roving newspaper-slash-starship that covers events throughout the universe. You’re programmed to be curious, you’ve got a lot of tools to aid you in investigations, and the world is your oyster – your job is to do journalism.
Unlike a lot of other games that center the journalism profession, which tend to talk about heady topics such as authoritarianism, censorship and the power of media over a population, Times and Galaxy seems to take a more hyperlocal approach, preferring to let players observe the scenes in front of them, collect quotes from witnesses both expert and passerby, and play around with the building blocks of basic stories. The goal is to make your stories balanced between sensationalism, informativeness, and the degree of interest it holds to a galactic audience. Ultimately, your reputation seems to hinge on your thoroughness, the buzz your stories cause and how many readers you can bring to the Times and Galaxy.
The demo we played featured two stories: a breaking news moment and a feature opportunity. We won’t go into detail on these stories because the fun is in talking to the people you meet and coming to your own conclusions; but what we will say is that while there isn’t enough in the demo to get a sense for any kind of overarching narrative in the game, you absolutely get a good sense of atmosphere. Between missions, you return to the Times and Galaxy’s ship, talk to your coworkers, get new assignments and even do a handful of side-quests, like finding the photographer’s wide-angle lens.
The game’s aesthetic is very cartoonish and weird, sitting in a spot I might only describe as “Futurama meets The Far Side.” Of course the characters all play this perfectly straight, but (for instance) when you’re talking to a cat owner whose “cat” is a vat of eyeballs, you might find yourself really noticing this surrealism – especially when you’re prompted to ask the owner specific normal cat-related questions like “what does it eat” and “what do you do to groom it?”
Honestly, I’m pretty excited for this one. The core mechanics ring true to me as a sometimes-journalist, and I can’t wait to see how else they’re employed. The developers include Ben Gelinas, a former crime reporter for the Edmonton Journal (and writer on games like Control, Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition), so I feel like it’s in really good hands for what I’m looking for out of it. According to Fellow Traveller, Times and Galaxy is due out in 2024, so it’ll be a bit of a wait for the full game; definitely check out the demo on Steam!
