How I Was a Teenage Exocolonist constructed a much better material caution system

Image: Northway Games/Finji

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a game regarding maturing on an unusual world– from age 10 to later adolescent years. It’s regarding uncovering as well as enduring in a brand-new globe called Vertumna, as well as component of that suggests checking out darker locations of life on earth as well as, well, life generally. Developer Northway Games did not wish to avoid any one of these a lot more complex styles, whether that’s fatality as well as passing away, sex, misuse, or large stressful occasions. It additionally desired gamers to be knowledgeable about what was coming.

Coming from a fandom history, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist author as well as illustrator Lindsay Ishihiro is utilized to material cautions; in follower areas, in-depth material cautions are usually a lot more stabilized. There are additionally a lot more traditional instances like Does the Dog Die?, a community-run website that began by tracking pets in films however has actually increased to crowdsource information on various other triggers in media, also. With the permission from Northway Games owner Sarah Northway, Ishihiro took ideas from the game’s aesthetic as well as gameplay language– it’s an aesthetic book with point-and-click components– to develop out a web content caution system that seemed like a choose-your-own-adventuregame

The material caution system comes exactly on I Was a Teenage Exocolonist‘s major web page, as well as there’s additionally a tip when you struck play– a tip to examine that web page if you require to.

Image: Northway Games/Finji through Polygon

“We’ll tell you right at the beginning, ‘Here are the major content warnings,’” Ishihiro claimed. “And then give the choice. If any of these are related to something that’s your trigger, click on the button and get lightly spoiled.”

If you’re delicate to, claim, eye injury, Ishihiro claimed, you would certainly click the switch that’s classified body scary as well as see if it’s provided there. The concept is that gamers will certainly have the ability to find out more regarding what to anticipate when it come to particular possible triggers without ruining various other components of thegame The material caution system goes much deeper from there, with alternatives for even more, even more in-depth descriptions.

The fatality material alerting tag is just one of those alternatives where there are various degrees to dig via. The initial degree of the tag recommendations the reality that personalities in the game can pass away in numerous means– as well as a few of them can not be conserved. But there’s one more choice there for individuals that require to recognize a lot more. “You can click through to another level where it just straight up tells you everything,” Ishihiro claimed. It’s full-on looters, with a breakdown of which personalities pass away as well as just how.

“This was really important to us because we’ve seen, in the indie sphere, a lot of games be unexpectedly dark and it having a knockback effect on their audiences,” Ishihiro claimed. “We’re not perfect, but we can at least try to get ahead of some of it. What else can you do but try?”

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is out currently on Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, as well as Windows COMPUTER.

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Source: Polygon

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