I'm not normally prone to hyperbole, but I Was a Teenage Exocolonist genuinely is a modern classic. The quality of the writing, the complexity of the characters, the emotional investment, and the amazing replayability make this game stand out.

Currently Exocolonist has nowhere near the profile or credit it deserves, and I would encourage anyone on the fence about whether this is likely to be their thing to give it a go. Please.

Exocolonist is very much its own game, however it straddles a space somewhere between visual novel (VN), RPG and princess builders (such as Long Live the Queen and Volcano Princess).

The risk of dropping a term like “visual novel” about a game such as this is that it risks creating the impression of click and read. I hate click and read, and most VNs leave me cold. I therefore use the term advisedly because it’s not like that at all. What the game is, instead, is heavily story driven with more reading than most people are likely used to.

In Exocolonist you play as the main protagonist arriving on a new colony world. Your primary interactions are with other colony ship children who age together with you across seasons and years until you are 20 years old, at which point the game ends.

Gameplay involves walking around different, smallish, maps interacting with other characters, building up skills and relationships, and revealing factoids about the other children, the new world you have colonised, and ultimately the adult world going on around you and their politics.

Most events and interactions trigger stat increases across 12 broad categories. What areas you focus on can dramatically alter the events that you trigger and the skill checks you are able to pass across your journey.

All main characters are potentially romanceable, although mostly in a pragmatic way – which is to say, most romance chains stay effectively platonic and the characters you romance maintain their own autonomy and quirks. The relationship outro also inevitably peters off into melancholy – for example distant characters stay distant, they drift away emotionally or get absorbed in their work, etc. Kind of like real life.

Or you can completely skip all romance chains and focus on saving your colony from collapse, or investigating this strange new planet you have found yourself living on, or on a career, or (eventually) playing politics with the adults.

It’s all very adult, and realistic, and emotionally impactful, but may feel a touch unsatisfying if your main goal in computer gaming is pure escapism.

Other than walking around maps, training up stats, triggering events, and interacting with other characters the other main element of gamification here is the card system.

As you experience the world you are rewarded with cards as a proxy for life’s experiences – such as [played] “Hide and Seek with Nougat”, “Harvesting Mushwood” and [learned] “Dys's Secret”. The cards have one of three different colors, corresponding to broad stat building themes, and a number. Later events as you age inevitably reward cards with higher values. To pass a skill check you need to arrange your cards into straights and runs.

The card system was more than complex enough for me as it gives a wonderful sense of agency, without being overly onerous or punishing. The tests are inevitably a reasonably straightforward exercise in pair matching and light mental arithmetic.

Finally, I absolutely despise replaying most games - one run though of a game is inevitably enough. Except in this case, where I have completed three full runs and started a fourth. (A full run takes around 7 hours.)

Exocolonist has a wonderful ability to encourage replayability. In part, this is because it is so content-dense that it is literally impossible to experience more than a fraction of what the game has to offer on a single playthough. The game also, very smartly, acknowledges the conceit with references to past (and future) lives and an end of game admonishment to “do better next time”.

There is, indeed, a lot of incentive to do better next time, in part because bad things happen in the game to nice people, and across multiple replays you can find ways to save them and to improve the colony's chances of success.

Taking certain routes through the story can also unlock additional story lines and options in future playthroughs.

If you haven’t worked this out already, I cannot recommend this game highly enough.

I'm not normally prone to hyperbole, but I Was a Teenage Exocolonist genuinely is a modern classic. The quality of the writing, the complexity of the characters, the emotional investment, and the amazing replayability make this game stand out. Currently Exocolonist has nowhere near the profile or credit it deserves, and I would encourage anyone on the fence about whether this is likely to be their thing to give it a go. Please. Exocolonist is very much its own game, however it straddles a space somewhere between visual novel (VN), RPG and princess builders (such as Long Live the Queen and Volcano Princess). The risk of dropping a term like “visual novel” about a game such as this is that it risks creating the impression of click and read. I hate click and read, and most VNs leave me cold. I therefore use the term advisedly because it’s not like that at all. What the game is, instead, is heavily story driven with more reading than most people are likely used to. In Exocolonist you play as the main protagonist arriving on a new colony world. Your primary interactions are with other colony ship children who age together with you across seasons and years until you are 20 years old, at which point the game ends. Gameplay involves walking around different, smallish, maps interacting with other characters, building up skills and relationships, and revealing factoids about the other children, the new world you have colonised, and ultimately the adult world going on around you and their politics. Most events and interactions trigger stat increases across 12 broad categories. What areas you focus on can dramatically alter the events that you trigger and the skill checks you are able to pass across your journey. All main characters are potentially romanceable, although mostly in a pragmatic way – which is to say, most romance chains stay effectively platonic and the characters you romance maintain their own autonomy and quirks. The relationship outro also inevitably peters off into melancholy – for example distant characters stay distant, they drift away emotionally or get absorbed in their work, etc. Kind of like real life. Or you can completely skip all romance chains and focus on saving your colony from collapse, or investigating this strange new planet you have found yourself living on, or on a career, or (eventually) playing politics with the adults. It’s all very adult, and realistic, and emotionally impactful, but may feel a touch unsatisfying if your main goal in computer gaming is pure escapism. Other than walking around maps, training up stats, triggering events, and interacting with other characters the other main element of gamification here is the card system. As you experience the world you are rewarded with cards as a proxy for life’s experiences – such as [played] “Hide and Seek with Nougat”, “Harvesting Mushwood” and [learned] “Dys's Secret”. The cards have one of three different colors, corresponding to broad stat building themes, and a number. Later events as you age inevitably reward cards with higher values. To pass a skill check you need to arrange your cards into straights and runs. The card system was more than complex enough for me as it gives a wonderful sense of agency, without being overly onerous or punishing. The tests are inevitably a reasonably straightforward exercise in pair matching and light mental arithmetic. Finally, I absolutely despise replaying most games - one run though of a game is inevitably enough. Except in this case, where I have completed three full runs and started a fourth. (A full run takes around 7 hours.) Exocolonist has a wonderful ability to encourage replayability. In part, this is because it is so content-dense that it is literally impossible to experience more than a fraction of what the game has to offer on a single playthough. The game also, very smartly, acknowledges the conceit with references to past (and future) lives and an end of game admonishment to “do better next time”. There is, indeed, a lot of incentive to do better next time, in part because bad things happen in the game to nice people, and across multiple replays you can find ways to save them and to improve the colony's chances of success. Taking certain routes through the story can also unlock additional story lines and options in future playthroughs. If you haven’t worked this out already, I cannot recommend this game highly enough.