VOYAGER PROJECT

DEVELOPER DISASTER FISH • RELEASE PLAY IT AT BAR SK, MELBOURNE • PRICE TBA

https://voyagergame.net/

I’ll be honest with you, I love a good elevator pitch at PAX. Given the money and time developers invest into showing their games, you’d be surprised how few have a concise, useful way to describe them to press. Creative director/producer, Felix Strangio, simply told me that Voyager Project was about, “being alone, together, in space,” and that wasn’t a bad initial hook, especially because this asymmetrical co-operative experience combines exploration with hacking. One player is ‘on the ground’, the other is ‘in control’ from afar, in a similar way to in Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

There’s also the argument that a great game will sell itself but, unless you’re Stardew Valley, great games without great marketing do tend to remain invisible. Voyager Project’s team had a repertoire of little hooks, however. On narrative, Strangio said, “A fragmented story challenges players to assemble a shared interpretation of their rescue mission to Pluto.” The website adds information about a “coldwar era science-fantasy facility”, a “distress beacon” and arriving “ten years too late.” This was one of the few games I was unable to play at home but, please, tell me more...