“If I was doing a new game, I would never dare to do any of this stuff,” Gareth Damian Martin tells me while listing off all theCitizen Sleeper-adjacent projects they’re working on at the moment. Aside from the sequel (and its animated trailer that they were incredibly hands-on with), there’s theTTRPG, the vinyl, the physical art book, andHelion Dispatches, a series of in-universe audio transcripts aimed at bridging the gap between Citizen Sleeper and Starward Vector. Their fingers are in a lot of pies, ensuring that all-important Damian Martin fingerprint is firmly imprinted on anything coexisting in the universe they created.
Is that too much for a solo developer to cope with? “I made my own torture chamber,” they laugh, “but it was super fun.” Damian Martin has a lot on their plate, but they’re not letting go of the Citizen Sleeper reins just yet. More collaborators are coming on board, adding different voices and perspectives to the universe, but for the time being, this is Damian Martin’s playground and they’re here to have fun.
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“The only way that I can let people into the world is when I’ve solidified it to the point where I feel like other people can understand its logic,” they explain. “[When] other people can understand what is, and isn’t a Citizen Sleeper story and what are the principles of the world. I don’t think we’re there yet.
“Maybe by the end of the sequel, things will be in a place where we have enough material now that I can say, ‘just go play those two games, read the Helion Dispatches, then you’ll be able to contribute to Citizen Sleeper.’”
For the time being, Damian Martin is content to explore this universe thanks to the newfound freedom that Citizen Sleeper’s success has afforded them. “So much stuff now in games is so risk averse and so repetitive and it’s just the same things again.
I feel like I’ve got this opportunity. Let’s have some fun.”
Between the runaway success of Citizen Sleeper and the fact they’re a small developer, Damian Martin is using this energy to do things differently to bigger games, and to keep Citizen Sleeper at the forefront of players’ minds.
The TTRPG and vinyl soundtrack release are long-requested ideas, announced as a celebration of the game’s first anniversary. The Lost In Cult book (and physical release ofHeterotopias zine, a personal GDM project unrelated to Citizen Sleeper), are adventures of passion. The sequel is the natural continuation of the Citizen Sleeper universe, and the audio transcripts of Helion Dispatches will connect the two games. Damian Martin is having a ball, spreading themself thin, and taking as many risks as safe decisions.
“I’m not a perfectionist because perfectionists can’t make things quickly in my experience,” they say. “So I’m an enthusiast, I get very excited about things and I want to make them really cool and I get excited about them being cool. But I don’t need them to be perfect.”
Citizen Sleeper’s sequel, Starward Vector, will iterate on the original game in numerous ways. It’s another risk departing from the tried and tested winning formula, the stuff that catapulted Damian Martin’s sci-fi to success, but that’s what being a solo dev is about. Instead of inhabiting Erlin’s Eye, your Sleeper pilots a spaceship – think of it like a canal boat rather than a naval dreadnought, Damian Martin advises me – and makes their way around the fringes of the galaxy. On the run and with your memories wiped, there’s going to be a lot more pace to Starward Vector, and the nature of zipping from planet to planet to escape the wrath of Laine means it’ll be fraught.
Picking up crewmates to join your space squat – and gradually repairing the ship itself – will be key, and there are entire planets and stories that can be skipped simply by picking a different route through the stars. The scope of the sequel is far bigger and the stakes are higher.
Don’t expect to see any more of Starward Vector this year, though, as Damian Martin estimates we’ll find out more on the original game’s second anniversary. They just wanted to announce it for the time being, to remind fans that they’re working on more things in the Citizen Sleeper universe, and to start bridging the light years across the system with Helion Dispatches. They want to continue to have a “conversation” with fans – sometimes literally, by answering lore questions in the game’s Discord server, and other times just by producing the monthly Dispatches – rather than secreting themselves away until the sequel is finished. Gareth Damian Martin wants you to come into their playground, but they’re not quite ready to share their toys.
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