System Processing

Content Warning: This story contains mature themes including depression, death, grief, and suicide.

I appreciate a degree of nebulous uncertainty when it comes to my past: I was born. I lived. My consciousness was digitized. A few millennia passed. Sirit found me in some ancient computer files. Decided to offer me a job. Now I'm here.

I don't want to know exactly how long it's been. How long I've been alive. How long I've been displaced. 

An absence of definitives preserves my sense of estrangement. If I had hard facts and figures, this—my current state of existence—would feel less surreal. More details might make it harder to think, "Hey. Maybe I'm not a digital ghost working for one of the far-flung descendants of humanity. Maybe I don't split my time between a spaceship and an alien planet. Maybe I don't regularly converse with a being that's basically a giant psychic plant. Maybe it's still 2068 and I'm just a normal human and this has all been a really long, really weird, really convincing dream."

Maybe.

System Processing is a short solarpunk story about Ov, a digital caretaker rapidly approaching retirement. Experience their final day, get to know the curious alien, Kor-Laðə, aid Ov's companions, and explore the beautiful world they inhabit in an introspective tale about individuality and symbiosis, understanding and acceptance, and grief and love.

This is currently an abridged version of the story with two endings. The content represented here is only about 30% of the game. System Processing will be released in full soon.

Links

Author | Other Games by Albie | More About This Story | Ko-Fi | Twitch

And remember...

We are Kor.