It’s the year 1985 and the National Space Exploration Agency (NSEA) has successfully landed three human missions on Mars with the goal of creating long-term permanent bases. The Atlas III Mission landed in the summer of 1984 and while researching their surrounding area, found metallic bushes clustered together in random spots inside their mission area. Immediately, they began investigating. While collecting samples for further analysis, one of the crew member’s suits was infested by some kind of dust that eventually made it impossible for them to move. In the interest of safety, they were left behind as the crew returned to their main base. As the mission went on, this metallic dust began to appear inside the main habitat and caused electrical disruptions. In a desperate attempt to cleanse the main building, they raised the internal temperature hoping to kill whatever the dust was. 

This was the last time the NSEA heard from the Atlas III mission and now the Soter Exploration Rover has landed in the mission area. It’s the player goal to piece together what happened using the information left behind by the Atlas mission and report back to HQ. 

While playing, players have access to a one-of-a-kind briefcase built specifically for this project. It has buttons for all the functionality of the rover, displays for rover information, and even a printer that gives you information about various objects around the world. In addition to this briefcase, the player also has physical documents; these include a topographical map of the mission area, a technical document that explains how the rover functions, and mission objectives. Players need to use all of these elements in combination in order to figure out the disappearance of Atlas III. 

While designing this game, it was my goal to push back against the removal of physicality in almost all of our daily interactions. With the rise of digital technologies, the experience of pressing a button or flicking a switch is disappearing in favor of touch screens and flash sci-fi style displays. I find this to be a shame because often simply the experience of interacting with physical objects can be fun; through the disappearance of these interactions, it is my opinion that we are slowly making our daily live less enjoyable and more utilitarian. I want to bring some of that back in a deep, alternative controller that asks for the player’s attention to properly play. The game is not easy to pick up, but as the player learns the sequences of actions needed to achieve different goals in game, they’re able to master the controller and feel as if they are really controlling this rover on a different planet.