Or what state you’re going to be in when you open your eyes. ‘That idea of waking up every morning and not knowing how you’re going to face the day. ‘My whole life I’ve suffered from clinical depression,’ Martin said recently during an interview as part of LudoNarraCon 2022, a digital convention celebrating narrative games, hosted on Steam and organised by Fellow Traveller, Citizen Sleeper’s publisher. Mostly though, it’s a game about precarity… until it isn’t. In its depiction of the cast of misfits aboard the space station known as the Eye, Citizen Sleeper explores themes of transhumanism, being a disposable and interchangeable unit of labour, and surviving with a disability in a world constructed by and for capital. I bought it, paused to mutter a prayer to whatever god a synthetic emulated being believes in, and hit the reroll. I had enough to purchase the skill that would let me, once a day, reroll my dice. I checked the character screen and ran through the options. Then I remembered I had an upgrade point left to spend. And here I was, about to let it slip through my fingers. Bliss had said this job might be our ticket out of here, the big break we’d been desperately hoping for. Worst case, two negative outcomes would leave me utterly exhausted, the job still wouldn’t be done, and tomorrow would be even worse. Rolling the two and the one was at best a 50/50 shot at a neutral outcome, and even the best-case scenario wouldn’t get the job done in time.

Meaning all I had left to give today on this damn contract was a two and a one. I’d used my one good roll – a five – to ensure my shift at the bar had gone smoothly and that I’d pocket enough cryo to afford a meal tonight. The day’s dice seemed to confirm that I was all out of luck.

The ship was leaving today and I was running out of time.

Download free citizen sleeper platforms