Alcyone: The Last City (pronounced Al-Sigh-O-Knee!) is a sci-fi interactive fiction game set in the last City in the universe. Created by Joshua Meadows (a video game journalist/writer, and author of the episodic sci-fi/fantasy series Iyetra), Alcyone: The Last City is a text-based adventure where choice, influence, knowledge, moral ambiguity and consequences will ultimately determine your fate. Alcyone: The Last City will feature multiple endings, all influenced by the story directions you choose to take. Will you save the City, or destroy it?
Centuries before the beginning of Alcyone, experiments with hyperspace and faster-than-light space travel ended up destabilising and destroying the universe as humanity knows it. Now, in the game’s present, all that is left is Alcyone itself — its old name has long fallen out of use, and its residents refer to it as just “the City.”
The City is governed by the Six Ruling Houses who oversee a very strict class & caste system — the rich have everything, and the poor fight for what they can. Movement and travel are heavily restricted and even the wealthy are scraping by as best they’re able. The City’s climate is a tinderbox ready for a spark — and then you come in.
The player steps into the shoes of a “rebirth.” Inhabitants of Alcyone don’t exactly die and can be reborn several times in cloned bodies with downloaded memories. Are you from the ruling caste, or was your background simpler? The choice is yours, and that choice is one of many that will dramatically impact your progression in the game.
- Alcyone: The Last City is a dynamic, evolving story set in the last city in the universe. Centuries from now, in a society left stagnant, you step into the shoes of a blank slate newly rebirthed.
- A riveting plot full of political intrigue, betrayal, and survival. Alcyone’s main themes are entropy and decay, and the player is a rogue element capable of breaking this cycle — or taking control over it.
- Choice drives the game and influences the story: more than giving the player the simple appearance of control, your decisions will change the options available to you, dictate the path your experience takes, and heavily decide the end of the game. Will you be a force for destruction, or will your decisions help the existing powers that be?
- An ambitious story featuring half a million words & upwards of twenty hours of gameplay, with significant replayability built in from the start.
- Diverse cast of characters, and the freedom to pick a persona that reflects who you are.
- Gorgeous high-resolution, hand-painted digital artwork by Peak Distapan accompanies the game text to bring its writing to life in vivid detail.
- Full-length soundtrack composed by Michał Korniewicz thematically supports the story for maximum emotional impact.
Alcyone: The Last City is currently seeking funding via Kickstarter, and is scheduled for release in December 2017 for macOS, PC, Linux, and mobile devices. The Kickstarter campaign runs until May 10th, with pledge levels including digital artbooks and soundtracks, canvas prints, a limited edition T-shirt, and the opportunity to create an in-game character or to help write an encounter or ending for the game.
A pre-alpha demo is currently available for free download (from Kickstarter or the Alcyone website), providing a “tutorial” area that will allow players to experience the game’s background, lore, and mechanics.