December Update // Awards, Exhibitions, Endings

In which I visit The Game Awards and hint at things to come...

Hello!

Welcome to the first issue of my new newsletter. 🥳

While I settle into this form you’ll have to forgive me for rambling a little, but I’m going to be trying to get a feel for the kind of material that works. In this first one I’ll stick to updating you on everything that’s been happening with me and my work, but do let me know in the comments if there’s something you’d like to see in future updates.

For the moment things are a little veiled, with the new Citizen Sleeper episode a little way off, and bigger things moving in the shadows behind, but once 2023 gets going you can expect more behind the scenes bits and pieces.

Its a real mix of things so I’ll leave a set of contents links up here, so you can jump ahead to the bit that interests you if you like, otherwise, settle in!

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Contents

► The Game Awards - Spectacle and support

► Holiday Gifts - Winter sale treats

► The Continuous City - View-Masters in Amsterdam

► The Year Ahead - Prepare for Purge

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The Game Awards

I’m writing this fairly fresh off the back of a rapid turnaround trip to LA to attend the Game Awards, where Citizen Sleeper was nominated in the “Games for Impact” category.

It’s an event that I left having mixed feelings about: while it was great to see Citizen Sleeper up there among the biggest games of the year, I’m not sure its the right forum for a game about vulnerability, precarity and communities of mutual support. The bombast of the show was as impressive as it was terrifying, but in the end, I hope that it brought the game to some new players, and I appreciate all the press that put the game forward to the category this year. Congratulations on As Dusk Falls for the win!

Also, I was totally humbled by the support for the game, and all the people voting for the game in the run up to the event. Combined with a string of GOTY nods from Polygon, Paste, IGN, The Gamer and others, it was a wild week in which I really felt like the game had taken on a life of its own. So, for that, thank you. there will be more awards shows in future, but for me, it is the warmth and generosity with which you all support the game that keeps me going.

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Holiday Gifts

I said I’d throw some early/exclusive news in these newsletters and here’s your first one of those. With the Winter Sale coming up Citizen Sleeper will get Steam Trading cards and Steam Points Shop items on December 22nd!

I know some people have been asking for these, and the points shop items are a particularly fun way to celebrate the game. I dusted off my old motion designer skillset (and updated my version of After Effects) to make some animated avatars of some of the most popular characters, and animated frame for those too, as well as animated backgrounds for your Steam profile. Pointless fluff to some and vital customization options to others, I hope you’ll enjoy these Holiday Gifts when the winter sale rolls around.

(look out for a healthy discount on the game then too!)

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© Arcam. Photographer Maarten Nauw

The Continuous City Continues

Those of you who have signed up for updates on Citizen Sleeper may be less familiar with my other work with games and architecture through my Heterotopias project.

Part of that has been my photography series, The Continuous City where I use analogue cameras to photograph urban game environments as part of a growing catalogue. This project has made the occasional appearance at galleries and museums, and right now is showing at ARCAM in Amsterdam as part of the Playing Architecture exhibit. A few months ago the same exhibition was in Vienna where my work was exhibited as slides, but this time around the analogue photographs of the Continuous City will be shows on custom View-Masters, for an immersive and unique experience.

If you happen to be in Amsterdam and see the exhibition, let me know in the comments! It’s running until May 28th.

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The Year Ahead

Finally, I just wanted to let you know that plans are being drawn up for the final episode of Citizen Sleeper, an update that observant players will have noticed is named EPISODE: PURGE.

You can expect a slightly longer gap until this one, with the Winter break and other exciting things happening in the background that you won’t hear about until later next year, but I hope you are looking forward to what will be both an end and a beginning for the larger Citizen Sleeper project.

PURGE is the culmination of the arc that started in FLUX, and also of my experiment in episodic content that feels like an Actual Play series or a TTRPG campaign. If you’d like to read a little more about that process, Inverse did an interview with me a little while back that covers some of my thoughts.

I don’t have much else to report for now, but expect a return to the tension and pace of FLUX after the more laid-back pacing of REFUGE. I don’t want to let you get too comfortable after all…

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And that’s it for now!

I’m really looking forward to everything I’m currently lining up for next year, and I hope it’ll be exciting for everyone to see a string of announcements and new things coming through. As always, this exciting stuff, like the episodes, can only happen because the game has been met with such an excellent reception, so as the year comes to a close I want to say one more thank you to everyone who has contributed to that.

Citizen Sleeper has set new records for me and my publisher, and this has guaranteed that it will be sticking around a while longer as I dig into the world and show you more of what it has to offer…

…But let’s save all that for 2023!

Wishing you all the best for the holidays, enjoy Citizen-Sleepering up your Steam profile to your heart’s content, and I’ll be back here in Jan to start the ceaseless teasing that you know and love.

All my best

Gareth