I Was a Teenage Exocolonist cover art

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

2022Northway GamesPlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Nintendo Switch

Spend your teenage years on an alien planet in this narrative life sim with card-based battles. Explore, grow up, and fall in love. The choices you make and skills you master over ten years will determine the course of your life and the survival of your colony.

What it feels like

The game treats its teenage coming-of-age narrative and relationships with sincere emotional weight. Despite alien hardship and colony stakes, the arc emphasizes growth, connection, and earned optimism.

Earnest65%
Hopeful60%

What it's about

Growing up over a decade on an alien planet, making formative choices and mastering skills that shape identity, is the central subject. Settlement and survival of an alien colony foreground the experience of building a new society on alien soil, with weighty implications. An alien planet setting and colonization premise ground the narrative in speculative sci-fi.

Coming of Age90%
Colonialism75%
Science Fiction70%
Love & Romance60%
Friendship55%
Identity & Self50%

How it plays

Card-based battles driven by deck construction form a major mechanical pillar distinct from the life-sim narrative. Daily routines, relationships, growth, and personal stakes of living as a teenager anchor the experience. Falling in love and building bonds with colony mates is an explicitly featured core system.

Deckbuilding80%
Life Sim75%
Relationship Sim75%
Dialogue Trees65%
Character Builds60%
Turn-Based Combat60%

How it looks and sounds

Visual novel presentation with illustrated 2D art drives the aesthetic identity.

Hand-Drawn 2D55%

How it's structured

The core experience is a bounded, authored ten-year narrative arc that progresses from arrival through growth to a definite resolution. Designed exclusively for solo play with no multiplayer component. Player choices over ten years fork the story into meaningfully different paths and life outcomes.

Campaign95%
Single-Player90%
Branching Narrative70%
Multiple Endings65%

Shares Coming of Age, Relationship Sim, Branching Narrative, Dialogue Trees.

Both lean into Single-Player, Campaign, Coming of Age, Relationship Sim.

Single-Player95%Campaign90%Coming of Age85%Relationship Sim85%

Shares Coming of Age, Relationship Sim, Branching Narrative, Multiple Endings.

Both lean into Single-Player, Coming of Age, Campaign, Relationship Sim.

Single-Player90%Coming of Age85%Campaign75%Relationship Sim85%

Shares Coming of Age, Science Fiction, Dialogue Trees, Turn-Based Combat.

Both lean into Single-Player, Campaign, Coming of Age, Science Fiction.

Single-Player90%Campaign75%Coming of Age60%Science Fiction65%

See all games like I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

A lesser-known kindred — Coming of Age, Branching Narrative, Dialogue Trees, Relationship Sim. 97% positive across 4,670 Steam reviews.

Both lean into Single-Player, Coming of Age, Branching Narrative, Dialogue Trees.

Single-Player95%Coming of Age75%Branching Narrative90%Dialogue Trees85%

A lesser-known kindred — Coming of Age, Dialogue Trees, Relationship Sim, Friendship. 92% positive across 4,619 Steam reviews.

Both lean into Campaign, Single-Player, Coming of Age, Dialogue Trees.

Campaign95%Single-Player90%Coming of Age85%Dialogue Trees80%

A lesser-known kindred — Coming of Age, Branching Narrative, Love & Romance, Dialogue Trees. 94% positive across 4,870 Steam reviews.

Both lean into Single-Player, Coming of Age, Branching Narrative, Love & Romance.

Single-Player95%Coming of Age72%Branching Narrative70%Love & Romance78%
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