The Alters Preview and Q&A – 11 bit Studios Adds Branching Narrative Layers to Base Building Survival Genre

wccftech.com:

Around sixteen months after the game's original announcement, 11 bit Studios (This War of Mine, Frostpunk) finally revealed more about The Alters in a remote press preview event that Wccftech joined a few weeks ago.

First of all, let's clarify what The Alters really is: a base-building sci-fi survival game with a major twist. Jan Dolski, an ordinary worker, finds himself in a life-or-death scenario when his spaceship crashlands on an unknown planet. Jan is stranded alone, but that's not the worst part of his predicament. He soon discovers that this planet is turning toward a huge sun and will soon be flooded with deadly levels of radiation.

Jan would need many more hands to fix the spaceship and go home. That's when he decides to use an experimental technology developed by his company. Luckily, this planet is rich in Rapidium crystals, which can be harnessed to create the so-called Alters.

These are not simple clones. Instead, the technology can somehow recreate alternate versions of Jan based on the various branching points in his life. The Alters are therefore different Jans with diverse skill sets, such as engineer, scientist, and so on. Needlessly to say, this is critical not only for the end goal of fixing the spaceship and going home but also for daily tasks like cooking, crafting tools for surface exploration, and gathering essential resources. Each Jan has a key role to play and teamwork is essential.

That's easier said than done, though. While every version of the protagonist shares the ultimate objective of leaving that forsaken planet, each Jan has different emotions, problems, and immediate goals. The presentation showed some Jans complaining because only the 'original' had a proper bed, so the developer handling