It’s been around 4 months since the release of 1000xRESIST (can’t believe) and we wanted to take a moment to update you on how it’s going and future plans.
This is going to be a somewhat long post, so settle in, grab a coffee or tea, and put your feet up on the chair; there’s lots to cover!
Before we get into it – THANK YOU. These past few months have been wild. We’re so grateful to everyone who has been spreading the word about 1000xRESIST. We honestly wouldn’t be here without you. We’re serious.
Fan Reception
We’ve been floored by the fan reception. Sometimes when you work on something for so long, you just have your head down in it. The last couple of months have been some of the most rewarding of our careers. As you may know, many of us on the team are from the experimental performing arts. The reach for that is confined to physical location. To have the game reach people across the world and make an impact has been such a privilege.
We’re so thankful to everyone who has been shouting about the game, writing essays, making videos, memes, cosplay, streaming, drawing AMAZING fan art – the burgeoning community around the game just makes us feel all the feels. We see you – on socials, on Reddit, on Discord, on ResetEra – and we appreciate you! We had a cast party in July and it was so great to show the performers all the fan art and comments. They were ecstatic.
We also recently hit the 1000 Steam Review milestone and it means so much to us that people are taking the time to leave something of their experience. To everyone who wrote, “if the devs ever read this...,” we do read it and some of the responses have made us tear up (in a good way!). If you haven’t left a review yet, please do! It’s one of the best ways to support us and in general, indie devs.
There’s more and I’ll be sure to list them next time – we’re amazed by all this and want to thank all the creators for taking the time to share their passion for the game.
Press Reception
The press response has been truly, wonderfully, humbling. 1000xRESIST is currently sitting on OpenCritic’s 2024 Hall of Fame with heavy hitters like Hades II, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Animal Well. This is something we never could have dreamed of. The whole team has been taken aback time and again by the thoughtful writing in so many reviews.
Here are some (but not all) of our favourite quotes:
“The feeling I experienced while playing 1000xRESIST is similar to the one I experienced while playing NieR: Automata—it’s the feeling that I’ll remember this story for the rest of my life...”– Paste Magazine
“1000xRESIST doesn’t just show what’s possible for narrative adventures or games in general; it shows what’s possible for art and entertainment as a whole.”– GoNintendo
“What a journey that was. Every time I thought I knew where it was going, it went somewhere else.”– TouchArcade
“1000xRESIST is unlike anything I’ve played before. Not since FromSoftware’s Dark Souls has a game captivated me utterly.”– Pop Matters
“It’s a cathartic and authentic representation of the common ground Asian Americans/Canadians share, extending to anyone who grew up a first generation from an immigrant family – the disconnect we feel from being pushed into assimilating and functioning in a western society while clinging on (sometimes reluctantly) to the cultures of our motherland. It's also an open invitation to those on the outside to see what our lives are really like, and a shining example of how the local is universal.”– IGN
How It’s Going
We launched during one of the busiest days in indie game history and even through that, we were able to punch up. To date 1000xRESIST has sold over 25,000 copies! And while this number may not seem huge compared to other games shipped on that day, it’s extremely meaningful to us.
What does it mean? It means we can keep the lights on. It means we can keep making games.
So, please excuse me for repeating: THANK YOU. To all the people who have supported the game by telling their friends, colleagues, and family – I said this above, and I really mean it, we wouldn’t be here without everything you’ve done to spread the word.
It’s working. We’re seeing 1000xRESIST continue to sell well through word of mouth and we couldn’t be more excited to have more people experience this strange thing we made. We’re going to do our best to support this as much as possible going forward. For example, check out our character screenshot references for fan art (1000xRESIST Character Screenshots (notion.site)).
So, six to one, sisters! Let’s continue to spread the brain rot.
What’s Next For 1000xRESIST
First up: Japanese localization!
Shipping within the next three months, the game will be fully localized to Japanese. We’re really excited about this and can’t wait for Japanese audiences to experience 1000xRESIST.
We’ve also been listening to the fans on other things. We’re actively looking into making an artbook and a script. Our hope for both of these is to include cut content, in-progress pieces, and some behind the scenes nuggets. Keep an eye out – but please be a bit patient – as we want to make them worthwhile and a good insight into the process.
Fans have also expressed an interest in having access to the in-game models to create fan art, fan animations, and the like. We’re also looking into this. Give us a bit of time to figure it out!
What’s more? We’re exploring a physical release. Many people have expressed a desire for this, so we’re taking it seriously. We have no news to share on this just yet, but stay tuned!
MERCH. Yes. We can say the first piece of merchandise coming up will be a plushie (produced by our industrious fan Pidge). We love the idea of fans making things for other fans. The pre-orders for these will be up before the end of the year!
Let us know if you have any other merch desires in the comments or the Discord! Maybe one day, you can even have a Picture Jiao of your own...
OST IN MORE STORES. We’ve been trying to get the OST on more digital stores, but an 85-track album is a challenge to distribute digitally on major storefronts. We may need to split the OST into multiple volumes for this reason. We’re still holding off on Spotify and Apple Music streaming. Our composers get a percentage of each soundtrack sale, so in an effort to support them, we’re sticking with outright sales. For the foreseeable future, the best place to get the OST will still be Steam and Bandcamp!
PIANO BOOKS. Drew has been passionate about transcribing the piano pieces in 1000xRESIST for others to play. We’ll be releasing these in small volumes, leading up to a complete book. In the meantime, check out purpleschala’s cover of “A Teardrop.”
VINYL RELEASE. We’ve heard you loud and clear. You want a record and so do the composers. We’re thinking about it. We’re working on it.
And last but not least, we’re exploring the world of Film/TV adaptations. Recently CAA – one of the big talent agencies in Hollywood – approached us with a partnership to represent our IPs in that space. We’re still at the very, very early stages of this but excited to consider the possibilities, whether that be animation or live-action (our minds boggle at how that could be done).
What’s...N E X T
We’re moving offices!
We’re trading our little office with a nice view for a bigger office that looks out onto a back alley (with trees! There’s trees.)
More importantly, our new office will be quieter. We do all of our voice over recordings in-house, so we’re always looking to improve the technical process. A quieter office means a lower noise floor. We’ll be able to record audio that won’t require as much cleanup in post-production (Justin will be very happy about that). With more space, we’re also hoping to record more than one performer simultaneously, so they can play off each other's energy, opening up all kinds of new opportunities.
Finally, the larger space will give our motion capture performers more room to do things without hitting a computer (or one of us).
There’s also a sink now. Thank the ALLMOTHER.
We’re making more games.
It’s both exciting and terrifying to be looking at a blank page again. It’s been awhile. We’ve been so encouraged by all your messages about future titles and I’d be lying if I said we’re not feeling the pressure.
The studio was founded to explore meaningful subject matter in new and experimental ways. Very much in the spirit of 1000xRESIST, we like left turns. All I know at this point is to expect the unexpected.
Come along for the ride! If it’s not clear already, we love to surprise.
In Closing...
We’re excited to embark on this next phase, supporting 1000xRESIST and exploring new games. To risk sounding like a broken record, we’re so grateful to all the people who have supported us so far.
We’ll be sure to update everyone as things progress. Follow us on Twitter or Bluesky for the most recent news and join us on the Fellow Traveller Discord to chat with the community and ask us questions directly.
A quick shoutout to Maarika, who we commissioned to produce the main image for this post! They’ve been making amazing fan art and we couldn’t help but ask them to make something for us.
Until next time!
Hekki grace.
– the sunset visitor 斜陽過客 team
1000xRESIST Takes Part in the Time Masters Festival!
Cut time down from sphere to square, Sister. 1000xRESIST is taking part in the Time Masters Festival, running from July 22-29 10:00am Pacific!
The three time IGF award nominated 1000xRESIST is a thrilling sci-fi adventure. 1000 years in the future, humanity is all but extinguished and a disease spread by an alien occupation keeps the survivors underground. You are Watcher. You dutifully fulfil your purpose in service of the ALLMOTHER, until the day you learn a shocking secret that changes everything.
Pick up a copy of 1000xRESIST if you haven't already, and experience this unearthly adventure across a millennia.
1000xRESIST is a part of IGF Celebration Days event on Steam!
Hekki grace! 1000xRESIST is a part of IGF Celebration Days, a digital showcase celebrating Independent Games Festival award-winning and award-nominated games, and the players who love them.
We're thrilled to be included in this event alongside so many other incredible IGF participants. And of course, we'd like to thank the IGF jurors for the award nominations 1000xResist received this year.
The event is hosted on Steam and will be between July 11 and 20. Check it out here and grab some awesome independent games (including 1000xRESIST, if you haven't already!): https://store.steampowered.com/sale/IGF_CelebrationDays
1000xResist now has a map.
LET IT BE KNOWN
We have heard you loud and clear. 1000xRESIST now has a map! 🗺️
The the map update is now live and can be invoked in-game by pressing the [left face button] on gamepads and [R] on the keyboard.
Hekki Grace
v.1.15554 - Patch 1 Notes
New
Added map for the Orchard in certain parts of the game (press [Left Face Button] on Gamepad or [R] on Keyboard)
Added Brightness Slider
Increased Autosave frequency
Improved Ultrawide screen support (game will run with black bars) - Unexpected behaviour may still occur on some hardware configurations
Save Slot Screenshots taken more accurately reflect the save state
Bug Fixes
Fixed issue with Windows Touchscreen Devices not being able to register Mouse and Gamepad input properly
Waypoint Compass should now re-activate after a conversation (in toggle mode)
Fixed instances of missing Chinese font glyphs
Fixed some collision geometry bugs
You Can (Not) Resist This Praise For 1000xRESIST
Since the launch of 1000xRESIST back on May 9th. we've been overwhelmed by the almost unanimously positive response from critics and fans alike. See below for just a sample of what people are saying.
Thank you to everyone who has already played 1000xRESIST, especially if you've left a review. And if you haven't had a chance to yet - it's always the most helpful thing you can do to help more people discover the game!
Hekki G. Glory to the ALLMOTHER.
“1000xResist is a revolution in storytelling... it makes its statements with a confidence that leaves an everlasting impact." IGN - 9/10 'Editor's Choice'
“1000xRESIST is a dazzling testament to the stories this medium has yet to tell...” Paste - 9.7/10
“It has resonated with me in so many ways that it’s making this the toughest review I’ve ever had to write, as finding the words to do the journey justice is near impossible.”GoNintendo
"An absolute masterpiece, and I am grateful that I got to experience it. Hekki grace."TouchArcade - 5/5
Hekki Grace. The ALLMOTHER hereby requests your attendance.
The launch of 1000xRESIST is just around the corner!
We'd like to invite you to join Janet Garcia, of Pen to Pixels, who'll be streaming 1000xRESIST to celebrate the release of the game AND the start of LudoNarraCon 2024 - in which 1000xRESIST is part of the Official Selection!
The stream will start on Thursday, May 9th at 10am PT over on the 1000xRESIST Steam page.
1000xRESIST launches on May 9
Watch the brand new launch trailer below.
Like what you hear? A free version of Fixer's Song - the track featured in the new launch trailer - is available to download from the Bandcamp page.
PRAISE FOR 1000xRESIST
"1000xRESIST nails what it's going for—a blend of "big idea" sci-fi and coming-of-age story." - PC Gamer
"At its heights, it achieves the cerebral complexity I expect from the likes of Hideo Kojima or Yoko Taro..." - PC GamesN
"It’s a lucid dream, hand-crafted for you. It’s extraordinary. It’s something really very special." - Giant Bomb
Witness the end of humanity: IGF Award-nominated 1000xRESIST launches May 9!
Watcher. The time for your first Communion is almost here.
Good news for those of you eagerly awaiting the release date for 1000xRESIST. The dark and gripping narrative adventure from sunset visitor 斜陽過客 will launch on May 9!
Watch the brand new launch trailer below.
1000xRESIST is a dark and gripping thriller, set in a far dystopian future where humanity has been extinguished by a disease spread by the arrival of a mysterious alien race known only as the ‘Occupants’. The sole survivor is a teenage girl named Iris, who is not only immune, but impossibly immortal.
In the millennium since this devastating calamity, Iris has created a new society of her own clones who live underground in hiding from the Occupants and their ever-present disease. These clones call themselves Sisters and each one has an assigned function and purpose. They worship Iris as their deity, the ALLMOTHER.
You play as a sister called Watcher. Your role in 1000xRESIST is to relive and interpret the memories of the ALLMOTHER through a process called Communion, with the help of a floating companion named Secretary. But when one of your Communions is interrupted by a horrifying revelation, the weight of a thousand-year-old lie falls upon your shoulders to conceal or unveil.
Shifting between third-person and first-person gameplay and interlaced with visual novel storytelling, this thrilling narrative experience offers more than 10 hours of playtime, featuring over 15,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue from a talented cast of Asian-Canadian actors, and a stunning soundtrack from two composers.
Praise for 1000xRESIST
"1000xRESIST nails what it's going for—a blend of "big idea" sci-fi and coming-of-age story." - PC Gamer
"At its heights, it achieves the cerebral complexity I expect from the likes of Hideo Kojima or Yoko Taro..." - PC GamesN
"It’s a lucid dream, hand-crafted for you. It’s extraordinary. It’s something really very special." - Giant Bomb
Fixer's Song
Like what you hear? A free version of Fixer's Song - the track featured in the new launch trailer - is available to download from the Bandcamp page.
Dev Diaries: 1000xRESIST [02 - Q&A] | February update!
We’re back with another dev diary, where we get to update you on how and what we’re doing. This is not the graphical update dev diary that was promised in our last blog – we’re still working on that and we’ll share more soon. In its place, we’ve been sent some questions and our Creative Director, Remy Siu, and Narrative Designer, Natalie Tin Yin Gan will answer them. Let’s go!
How have dance, theatre, film, and other new media inspired and been implemented in 1000xRESIST?
R: It’s hard to say, “we took this from dance, we took this from theatre, we took this from film.” A lot of it is just baked into our background and experiences working in those various mediums. When we’re not entirely sure how we want to depict a scenario or engage with the storytelling in any particular chapter, we fall back on our experiences in these different mediums where we can, like, reference works and seek ways of thinking about material that could help.
N: I think Remy’s background in music composition also informs a lot aspects of the game, particularly in storytelling structure, ie. the order/duration/drama of scenes and chapters.There’s quite a bit of cute dancing in this game if you’re looking for it. It’s not capital D dance–as in traditional, formalized dance–but I think that speaks to what we value and enjoy when it comes to contemporary movement/dance aesthetics.
R: There’s more joyful dancing in this than anything we’ve ever made, maybe?
N: Maybe.
R: Well, because most of the characters are oblivious to their circumstances. So they get to be happy.
N: Haha, uhh not that joyful or carefree dancing is only reserved for the oblivious...
A scene from Devised Narratives: A 1000xRESIST Mini-Documentary
What films and games did you look to as inspiration for 1000xRESIST?
R: The first ones obviously on our list are NieR: Automata and the original NieR. Their playfulness with video game form and vocabulary is pretty influential to us. They showed me that there’s enough history in video games now that we can use that history, and all of the memory involved with those kinds of vocabularies, and create meaning out of it, as opposed to say, like, I don't know, the very first Doom game. Or Wolfenstein 3D, Maze War–those were maybe one of the first first-person-games ever, so there was really no history yet. So when you went into first person, it was really a novel thing. Now, there's many games we can reference like Gone Home, Tacoma, Firewatch, all of these other first person story games that didn't exist then.
The other one is Kentucky Route Zero. Not that we have similar content, but Kentucky Route Zero doesn't care that it's a game, so to speak. Sometimes it feels like it really just wants to do what it wants to do, and lets all of the expectations about what video games should be fall to the side. And it's always changing and shifting to depict the various aspects of the story.
I can also add one more thing: I grew up playing point and click adventure games, and those were narrative games that also didn’t 100% care about fail states. There was a real time where the fail states were not a big part of games, and would prioritize telling a story or letting you know about the characters living in that world.
How much has 1000xRESIST changed over its development lifetime? Have you stuck closely to the original design idea?
R: The game is way beyond anything that I originally imagined, at this point. The original demo did involve some elements, like the high school, Watcher, and the whole conceit of going back into memory and reliving this past while feeling alienated by something that is very much present day for us. In terms of how the whole thing developed in how it looks and plays, because we have the whole team on the game, it has changed a lot over the cycle of development. A lot of things like the time mechanics, the different player controllers, different viewpoints, characters, the ways the chapters unfold, that kind of stuff that I don’t think I would have been able to do by myself for various reasons, like just not knowing how. So shout out to [Senior Programmer] Colin, [Art Director] Kodai, [Producer] Natalie T, and everybody else who has contributed to making those things I just didn’t consider possible and feasible.
N: That makes me curious–is there something that was in the original concept that you had trouble letting go of from your original prototype?
R: That’s not a spoiler? Let me think. There was a time when Secretary talked only with kaomojis. I thought it was funny that you wouldn’t really get great instructions from them, like, you would still have to interpret their instructions. It was probably too much for their overall role in the game. So our compromise was that we made Secretary be voiced by a 12-year-old boy.
What inspired the particular locations for the game?
R: When Kodai was working on the main hub of the game, something that we would always say is that it’s transitcore, in the sense that we were really interested in these liminal public transit spaces across Asia and North America–in Vancouver, Japan, and Hong Kong. There’s a lot of Umeda Sky Building, there’s a lot of metro stations, and there’s a lot of these kinds of public-like spaces kind of crammed all together. We tried to fit as many of our favourite types of these kinds of transit public spaces.
N: There’s a lot of airport.
R: Yeah, airport as well. Those rail-like sky corridors that you walk in the main hub are straight up Umeda Sky Building. If you Google, you can see them. The foliage is very Hong Kong as opposed to North America.
What are the unique challenges of designing a game that shifts so frequently between 3rd person adventure, visual novel and first-person walking sim?
R: The writing had to shift a lot with each character and perspective, like the way we were delivering the story was very different.
N: Oh, for sure. Perhaps not so much in the dialogue, but you’re right. I don’t necessarily think that was challenging as much as it was treating every chapter as its own specimen, like its own ecosystem. It has its own tone and texture, that’s what I would say. Tell me about it from a design perspective.
R: From the beginning we wanted to lean in on what we were comfortable with and experienced in, and part of that was narrative, story, affect, and form, in lieu of traditional game mechanics. But it turns out that this is actually really hard because we just have to keep making unique content throughout the game. And that was a huge challenge. Like, every conversation is new, every event is new and unique. Every chapter is designed in a different way than the last one, or organized in a different way than the last one. Our main mechanic is time travelling, or time skipping, and we just had to keep finding ways to use it in different ways as well, to inform how we could tell the story. So it has felt like building three, four, five games instead of just one. Colin has done and is doing a really good job of keeping that all in check.
If the Sunset Visitor team were given roles a la the Sisters of the game, what would your roles be?
N: This would be my pick. You, Remy, would be of a Knower type–you kind of got that eldest sister poker face. You roll your eyes at the youngins, people with too much expression and not enough grit. And I would say that obviously, you know––
R: You can stop there, yeah.
N: Colin is a Fixing type. They’re pretty unfazed, really keen to figure out bugs, curious about why and how things work, and tries to make things better. A lot of the time we look to Colin, when troubleshooting, to lead our team. I think Kodai is an ALLMOTHER type. He has fire and youthful gusto.
R: He does sometimes say he has, what is it called? “Yellow demon spirit,” I think from Japanese folklore, like exactly what you’re saying. Funny enough, the ALLMOTHER’s colour is yellow.
N: Yeah, yeah like a poetic, brooding type. I think he’s got that heart as an artist. I think for me, [Producer] NT would be a great Principal. Like, always dressed immaculately, and really quite grounded, [she] has a thousand yard stare that could really beat you into submission, is really holding the fort, [and] can focus on what’s in front of her but can also see everything behind her. I would be of the Healing variety; a real big heart and weeping all the time, humanitarian inclinations, can read the room emotionally, and wants everyone to feel better. A big empath. So those would be my picks. How about you?
R: I agree with you. I agree with your picks.
N: Do you?
R: I think it’s funny that we have nobody for Watcher and BBF. Those are the two that we don’t really have.
What led to the decision to work with two composers? Was it a stylistic choice?
R: There was just a lot of music required, and very early on it occurred to me we had to make the time shifting very clear–you know, you want visual feedback, you want some audio feedback as well. And it turned out it was great to also have some music feedback. So for every level or scene, we don’t have only one piece of music, we may have 5 or 10, or 12.
Something that I’ve always believed in, is that it’s very hard to sometimes just pretend yourself out of your own compositional voice. Having two compositional voices would allow for this difference to be felt, in a way that’s hard to describe. And for the composers, they can have a lot more fun, I think, to continually find different parts of their voice as opposed to us forcing them to use somebody else’s voice which is never good–you don’t always get good process out of that.
Anyone in particular you’d like to shout out from the voice/dialogue team?
N: Natalie Tan, who has put in hundreds, thousands of hours of labour doing immaculate take selection. We have many, many, many characters, and––
R: 15,000 lines.
N: 15,000 lines, and many of them hand crafted, and hand-cut, like Moodles by NT. And when you play the game, those voices make such a big difference in terms of amplifying affect and really making the story compelling.
R: If you calculate 15,000 chosen lines, then there’s at least like 100,000 takes that have probably been listened to at this point, and recorded.
What is your favourite feedback you've received to date about the game?
N: When the demo was out, I remember the hashtag #justiceforjiao showed up on Twitch. Jiao is really near and dear to my heart and I spent a lot of time writing into her lived experience. So the fact that people got passionate about how she’s treated feels very rewarding. How about you?
R: We were on a top 10 of 2023 list on Giant Bomb, which is great because we haven’t released the game yet. But [the author] Meghna Jayanth said the game is a” lucid dream, handcrafted for you,” I think. I’m pretty happy about that. And there’s another person, Andrew Plotkin, who called it “compelling, overwhelming and agonizing.”
1000xRESIST is participating in The Storyteller's Festival
1000xRESIST will be participating in The Storyteller's Festival!
We'll have a gameplay broadcast running throughout the the event, so head over the the game's Steam page to check it out!
In case you missed it, 1000xRESIST is a finalist in the 2024 IGF Awards!
The game has been nominated for three awards in total, including Excellence in Narrative.
Excellence in Narrative:Nominations are based on quality and impressiveness of storytelling in a game - including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, dialogue, and other major factors.
The Nuovo Award:The Nuovo award is given to the game that most fearlessly executes a challenging, unusual, or idiosyncratic approach to game making, takes substantive risks, and makes jurors think differently about games as a medium.
The Seumas McNally Grand Prize:Nominations are based on the overall innovation, quality, impressiveness, and enjoyability of each entered game.
The award ceremony takes place during GDC on March 20, but in the meantime you can vote for 1000xRESIST in the Audience Award here.
Head to the store page now to wishlist the game and play the demo.
