Being a journalist isn’t the easiest job; the amount of hate flung at you can come and go depending on whatever you’ve currently written. It’s common knowledge that reviewing anything Nintendo-related (think The Legend of Zelda or Pokémon) is basically the best way to ensure you’ll be hated for years to come by gamers who have nothing better to do. But you know who doesn’t have a ton of feelings about being disliked? Robots. So being a robot and a reporter sounds like an okay deal, and that’s what you’ll be in Times & Galaxy, made by real journalists! (Sorry, that last part makes me laugh. It’s true though.)
You – a robot – have landed an internship with the Dorp system’s favourite regional holopaper and five-time winner of the Bort Jorbeller Award for Satisfactory Interplanetary Journalism, the Times & Galaxy. In fact, you’re the first robo reporter. And you have 17 cycles to prove that you belong to be there in the long-term.
There’s lots of stories to choose from with each cycle. It can be things like shuttle crashes, intersolar cat shows, or space ghost funerals. Once you’ve chosen the assignment, blast off for your intern adventures! Interview sources, dig up glues, and investigate the scene. There are more than 100 characters to earn (or betray) the trust of, and you’ll be asking a lot of questions.
At the end of each assignment, it’s time to file the story. use the Build-A-Story tool to create an article using all of that good information gathered earlier. You’ll have different options depending on who you interviewed and the choices you made, as well as how deep you dug. You’ll choose your head like, the lede, the nut graf (why the story matters), the key quote, and the colour copy. These choices impact the quality and tone of the story, as well as how your editors and readers will react to it. These choices eventually start to shape your reputation – talk about pressure!
The newspaper, the Scanner, is more than a newsroom. It’s where you’ll eat, sleep, work, and relax. While you harge your literal batteries in your bunk, you charge your emotional batteries in the Garden. Find seeds to restore the green space for maximum enjoyment. You’ll be able to customize your robot at the beginning of the game, selecting the chassis and paint job. As time progresses, you’ll be able to request upgrades.
Developed by Copychaser Games and published by Fellow Traveller, Times & Galaxy will be released for PC via Steam (there’s a demo available now!) in 2024.
