The Astronaut's Journal
A downloadable game
The Astronaut's Journal is an asynchronous correspondence horror game about loneliness for two players. It's meant to be printed as an A5 booklet.
The Astronaut is alone on a spacecraft hurtling through deep space. The Astronaut begins to write in their journal, only to discover a mysterious Correspondent responds in the same journal.
In this game, one player plays the Astronaut and the other plays the Correspondent.
The Astronaut does not reach their destination, but you do not yet know why, or what will happen on the journey.
There are two playbooks in this game, one for the Astronaut and one for the Correspondent. You should only read the playbook for your character.
For me, designing this game was an experiment in asynchronous, play-by-post design, and I didn't really base it off any other systems. It hasn't been tested, so I'd appreciate any feedback!
People have said about The Astronaut's Journal: "I desperately want to watch the movie we are making!"
It was written for, like, a lot of jams that all occurred at the same time: the #AdAstra jam inspired the space theme, the #CorrespondenceJam inspired the play-by-post aspect, as did the #SpectrumHorrorJam, which also inspired the horror aspects, and the @EndJam, which inspired the section on choosing how to end the game.
CW: Horror themes.
Also attached are the Safety Emoji that @AbeMendes and @SeaExcursion designed, which I really appreciate them allowing me to use!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Community Copies
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Comments
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Are the astronaut's cores supposed to be public? Or are they a secret until they are addressed in a message?
Thanks!
It's your call as the players, but I think it's more interesting for them to be a secret until addressed in a message, so long as both player's safety is paramount :)