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I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

|United States|Visual Novel, Card & Board Game

9.6 /10

Aww Amazing!

Hot

4.8k ratings
Time to beat
Main + extras
18h
Rating sources
Steam · Player score9.6/104.8k ratingsIGDB · Player score7.6/1024 ratings
Trailers & screenshots
Why play it

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.

Story and worldbuilding

Growing up in humanity's first extrasolar colony, you and your family are refugees from Earth flung into a new world of wonder and danger. You have your whole life ahead of you: Will you become an engineer and bring modern technology to this jurassic planet? Or cultivate the alien plants and live in harmony with exotic nature? Battle the massive beasts which rule Vertumna, or nurture future generations of humans? Your decisions matter; whether to study, learn to play an instrument, obey your parents or sneak out to explore the hazardous jungle. Adolescence is full of awkwardness and clumsy mistakes, but everything you learn will make you - and your colony - stronger. Your memories, decisions and friendships will be at your side when strife is near, becoming collectible cards used for everything from taking a math test to escaping the jaws of a wild snapbladder. A strange connection to an orbiting wormhole causes you to remember events from your past lives. It'll take many lives to find every ending and ultimately a way to save both your colony and the planet.

Game highlights
Rating momentum

Aww Amazing!: 9.6/10 across 4.8k ratings. This score says: bump it to the top of your backlog.

Play style

Leans into Visual Novel, Card & Board Game, Role-playing (RPG), with a main story around 18h. Check if that style and time commitment fit you.

Reviews

20 media reviews

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PolygonNicole Clark · 4 Nov, 2022

Teenage Exocolonist rounds out to a moving, challenging coming-of-age story with genuine stakes and exceptional replayability. If you don’t like the way things went — and in early playthroughs, you probably won’t — there’s always your next life. There are more friends to be made, more crises to avert. With 30 potential endings, the options abound.

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DestructoidNoelle Warner · 23 Jan, 2023
9.5/10

A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage.

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Push SquareJade Sayers · 25 Aug, 2022
8/10

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is a fun visit through adolescence which begs the player to keep living life to the max, experiencing all the game can offer. It's a beautifully artistic game, with many opportunities for a unique experience every time you play.

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Nintendo LifeRoland Ingram · 25 Aug, 2022
7/10

Every single thing about I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is nice, from its appearance to its sounds to its writing – nice, even, to a fault. As a plot device, it makes sense that the utopian vision of the Exocolonists is all very lovely, with its impeccable inclusivity and anti-capitalist teachings, but at some point, if things are going to go life-or-death pear-shaped, the niceness really ought to give. Overall, the game lacks bite, but with so much love and niceness oozing from every facet of it, it is, by the same token, impossible to dislike.

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WccftechNathan Birch · 25 Aug, 2022
9/10

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is an engrossing social sim that offers up deep roleplaying and a wonderfully-realized universe, with fun collectible card game mechanics as a bonus. Perhaps more importantly, it’s one of the best distillations of growing up I’ve ever encountered in a video game. It doesn’t matter if you’ve left the era long behind, don’t miss out on getting these teenage kicks.

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GameGrinArtura Dawn · 25 Mar, 2023
10/10

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is not short of becoming an exemplary title in fantastic writing and storytelling, and easily my favourite entry into the visual novel genre thus far.

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GameBlastVítor M. Costa · 18 Mar, 2023
8.5/10

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist has a good soundtrack and great sensitivity in character building and gender relations, in addition to a unique simulation through narrative RPG and interesting mechanics based on cards that dialogue very well with its plot. This title is highly recommended for casual simulation and VN players, as well as narrative-focused RPG lovers.

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Geeks Under GraceCourtney Floyd · 6 Mar, 2023
10/10

I was a Teenage Exocolonist is nothing short of amazing. Its complex inclusive characters, choice-driven gameplay, and immense potential for replay make it a must-have for any gamer.

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GamesHubHeather Blakey · 14 Feb, 2023
10/10

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a beautiful game, a synth-laden ode to growing up and allowing yourself to fall, fail, succeed and explore in a posthuman world that asks thoughtful questions about what it means to exist alongside the natural environment.

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video games are goodJulie Cooper · 26 Nov, 2022
9/10

At its core, Exocolonist is a fascinating story about collective survival, finding harmony with the planet, and how a blank slate for humanity is, well, not really a blank slate at all. The memory of the crumbling planet Earth pursues these colonists, literally. And with the colony constantly on the brink of disaster, the old systems of militarization, power imbalances and overconsumption of resources starts to make a tempting appearance. It’s up to you as the player, and as part of the colony, to decide if you’re willing to give into that ghost of a collapsing society or if it’s better to try something new.

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