Killing Time at Lightspeed

Text reads 'External date 5th october 2050. E t a 12th september 2059' and'Brigitte, tonight didn't go so well. Dad called Salli it...ugh...and Mom just talked about grandkids the whole time.' and 'That sounds terrible. Is Salli okay?' and 'Brigitte, they were fine. I'm still angry. I'll calm down one day.' and 'Julius, first thing in this show is the main character looking for a job. Jeez, I'm trying for some escapism here. Hashtag shuffle heart.' and 'What are you talking about?' and 'Julius, it's this show. Everyone's kinda still flipping out about it. Remember those old harem anime I used to watch? I think it's like that but kinda backwards.' and 'Julius, one girl, many guys. Or, well, one synthetic and many guys and girls and other synthetics? I'm struggling to keep up with all the characters. l o l' and 'Julius, it's a cartoon, but I dunno, it's not really for kids. Wait, jeez you're reading me tweeting the first episode aren't you? You should look it up when you get there.' and 'Cybernetic rights protests occur world wide as pluggers demand equal treatment and consumer protection.' and 'How much does a synthetic make each day?' and 'Q mart pays itself rent, gets large tax breaks'.
  • Developer: gritfish
  • Publisher: gritfish
  • Year: 2016
  • Genre: Interactive fiction
  • Platform/s: PC

Killing Time at Lightspeed is a work of interactive fiction where the player is a passenger aboard a craft travelling at lightspeed and interacting via social media with friends from home; each of these interactions arrives days, weeks, months, or even years after the original post was created due to the way time passes aboard the ship. The game explores issues of gender and sexuality, as well as representation more broadly, activism for rights, and social media abuse. The game features 'synthetics' who are fighting for their rights alongside humans, and the opinions of people within your social media feed are varied regarding whether synthetics should be accepted (with references to the increased complication of pronouns now that there are more than just human genders to consider). As the game progresses, social media posts and news stories show the progression of these fights for rights, as do your interactions and messages with characters through 'prompts'.