One of 2022’s most acclaimed indies, the Game Awards-nominated Citizen Sleeper is a Tabletop-inspired narrative RPG set on Erlin’s Eye, a ruined space station that is home to thousands of people trying to survive on the edges of an interstellar capitalist society.
You are a sleeper, a digitised human consciousness in an artificial body, owned by a corporation that wants you back. Thrust amongst the unfamiliar and colourful inhabitants of the Eye, you need to build friendships, earn your keep, and navigate the factions of this strange metropolis, if you hope to survive to see the next cycle.
Inspired by Tabletop Roleplaying games, Citizen Sleeper uses Dice, Clocks and Drives to create a player-led experience, where you choose your path in a rich and responsive world. Each cycle you use the dice you are dealt to choose what to do with your time. Make or break alliances, uncover truths and escape your hunters. Survive and ultimately thrive, one cycle at a time, and sometimes against the clock!
The station plays host to characters from all walks of life, trying to eke out an existence among the stars. Salvagers, engineers, hackers, bartenders, street-food vendors, each has a history which brought them here. You choose which of them you wish to help, and together you will shape your future.
Eventually, you will learn to use your dice to hack into the station’s cloud to access decades of digital data, uncover new areas and unlock secrets. This is your unique power, and with it you can change your future. Corporate secrets, rogue AIs and troves of lost data await those willing to dive into the depths of the station’s networks.
Essen-Arp: to them you are just property, one more asset in a portfolio that stretches across the stars. You are the product of an abusive system, in a universe where humanity’s expansion is marked by exploitation and extraction. Escape the makers of your decaying body, and chart your own path in a richly imagined, deeply relevant sci-fi world which explores ideas of precarity, personhood and freedom.
Citizen Sleeper uses Dice, Clocks and Drives to create a player-led experience, where you choose your path in a rich and responsive world.
Each cycle you roll your dice. Assign them to vast range of actions available on the station. With every action, choose what, and who, matters to you, shaping the lives of those around you, and ultimately the future of the station.
Clocks track both your actions and the actions of others across the station. From becoming a local at the Overlook Bar to protecting a friend from Yatagan enforcers, clocks allow you to track your own progress and the influence you have on the world around you.
Follow drives not quests, allowing you to pick and choose the stories and activities that matter to you. As you do, you will shape your character's five skills (Engineer, Interface, Endure, Intuit and Engage), unlocking perks and bonuses that reflect and change how you choose to live in this world.
Citizen Sleeper now includes all three post-launch DLC episodes FLUX, REFUGE and PURGE, which expand the game and introduce additional characters and locations to Erlin’s Eye in an exciting new late game storyline.
JOIN THE DISCORD
ABOUT THE DEVELOPER
Jump Over the Age is a one-person game development studio founded by Gareth Damian Martin (they/them). Gareth is the winner of GDCA and Indiecade awards, and has been nominated for a Games Award, multiple IGF Awards, a GDC Award, and four BAFTAs. They have been named both “An accomplished world-builder” (Edge Magazine) and “one of the most exciting indie talents around” (Eurogamer).
Published by Fellow Traveller ®. Fellow Traveller is a registered trademark of Surprise Attack Pty Ltd trading as Fellow Traveller Games. All rights reserved.
Game length provided by HowLongToBeat
Posted on: December 12, 2024
michiel_gamer
Verified ownerGames: 726 Reviews: 8
Relaxed and deep
Story-rich narrative RPG with dice. Great plot lines, fitting music, relevant choices to make and a cynical (but realistic) view on how corporates might rule tomorrows worlds.
Is this helpful to you?
Posted on: December 26, 2024
IDrinkTeh
Verified ownerGames: 29 Reviews: 1
feed the cat
every cycle, even before you feed yourself
Is this helpful to you?
Posted on: March 20, 2025
Louard_le_Barbare
Verified ownerGames: 293 Reviews: 120
Good, but maybe not all that remarkable
Citizen Sleeper is a fine game. It heavily markets itself as “inspired by tabletop role-playing games”, but you definitely shouldn’t expect it to play or feel like your typical CRPG: it is more accurately described as a sort of management sim that happens to have RPG-esque elements. On its own merits though, it is rather entertaining and well-conceived. While the mechanics are kind of abstract at first glance, they are simple to get a hold of while also having a respectable amount of depth and complexity, making for an engaging gameplay loop. Have your priorities straight, acquire and spend resources carefully, make sure you have enough juice left to keep yourself going for the foreseeable future, and you’ll be fine! The experience is not all about that grind though, as each objective you complete will advance the plot a little through a dialog box: those story snippets are typically well-written, full of fascinating sci-fi concepts, and the occasion to meet a variety of nuanced characters and reflect on all the challenges this world presents… Some of which are uncannily similar to ours. Sadly, while all of this makes CS good, it’s not quite enough to make it great. The gameplay, while full of smart design decisions, is repetitive: essentially, it all boils down to throwing a bunch of dices until you’re rewarded with a bit of text to read and a few inconsequential dialog options to select. The experience gets somewhat dull, and the presentation doesn’t help: the character illustrations look cool, but everything else from the music to the 3D visuals felt pretty bland to me. So, yeah, I ended up finding CS fairly unimpressive... but commendable, especially for a single-dev project. It’s lacking in ambition, but it’s fine for what it is: a text-based management game about living paycheck to paycheck in a system that can barely sustain itself. If you’re looking for a relaxing adventure game with a focus on narration, there’s definitely something for you here.
Is this helpful to you?
Posted on: May 21, 2022
Acearsonist
Verified ownerGames: 74 Reviews: 1
Good narrative game
The story is brilliant, while I managed to get one ending in my first sitting I still find myself drawn back to play it again. Your character's identity of being a sleeper and trying to find themselves in a place they don't know and are unsure of how they fit is, is a compelling story. The game fits into the cyberpunk genre, but it also feels like a post-cyberpunk genre as it is removed from some of the main staples of the genre. The characters feel like actual people, and I found myself empathising with them. The gameplay isn't my usual style when compared to what I've played before but it was fresh and I found myself worrying about keeping up my condition so I could get the most out of each day. (though once I had plenty of scrap and the perk, this worry went away. I also found myself with a lack of things to do in the days running up to my chosen ending). I could not recommend this game enough
Is this helpful to you?
Posted on: June 17, 2022
Mortarah
Verified ownerGames: 438 Reviews: 59
A futuristic gem
This game brings a lot to the table and doesn't overstay its welcome. Expect deep story, nice atmosphere, lovable characters, mysteries abound, simple gameplay with some RPG elements, and (beware, a lot of) reading. Simply said, I loved the (emotional) journey this cosy game took me on.
Is this helpful to you?
Something went wrong. Try refresh page.
No reviews matching your criteria
