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I Was a Teenage Exocolonist News

Last chance to vote for Exocolonist in the Golden Joysticks!

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist has been nominated for Best Storytelling in the 2022 Golden Joystick Awards! Voting closes this Friday, November 4th at 4:00pm PST / 7:00pm EST / 11:00pm GMT.

Vote now at: goldenjoysticks.com
List of nominees: gamesradar.com

The Golden Joystick Awards are the longest running public-voted gaming awards show, first held in 1983 and now in its 40th year. The ceremony will be streamed digitally at twitch.tv/goldenjoystickawards on Tuesday, November 23rd at 1:30pm PST / 4:30pm EST / 9:30pm GMT.



It's a huge honor to be nominated! The other games up for the Storytelling category are IMMORTALITY, Return to Monkey Island, Horizon Forbidden West, NORCO, and Wayward Strand. Also our Finji sister game TUNIC is up for the Best Indie Game category. What a lineup to be included in!

- Sarah ːnyaaː

Exocolonist Patch #1 (version 2204) changelog!

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist Patch #1, version 2204 (October 4th) is now live on Steam!

It fixes a few big bugs (the gym does something now!), a bunch of rarer issues (all cards now gettable!), plus better support for the Steam Deck and non-16:9 aspect ratios.


No more letterboxing - resize the game window to whatever scale you want!

Thank you so so so much to everyone who sent in bug reports and helped me track these down, especially machine-specific problems and all those obscure typos and issues in hidden corners of the narrative.

If you run into any more problems, please report them from inside the game so it sends me your logs and stuff too!

Patch notes:

  • change vibration toggle to an intensity slider
  • improve controller navigation of settings and custom gender menus
  • force teleport back inside colony during glow or when too young
  • improve collectible use with gamepad
  • upgrading cards now works, eg marz1 disappears when you get marz2
  • increase food if you find mushrooms while foraging
  • optimize opening the deck menu
  • show "start your next life" on main menu after an ending
  • improve food supplies notice in depot
  • no more cake for sale while starving
  • remove sound from northway games splash logo
  • back up savegames, memories, and settings to avoid file corruption
  • hide mouse cursor while in gamepad or keyboard-only mode
  • smoother switching between mouse and gamepad/keyboard-only mode
  • support ultra-widescreen monitors and more other resolutions
  • improve text menu layout for 16:10 and other resolutions
  • default some machines to lower resolution or lower quality
  • on steam deck always show selection reticle, use gamepad tooltips
  • change steam deck default settings and remove keyboard bindings
  • on macs, hide buggy/unused vsync setting
  • running game directly from exe no longer connects to steam client
  • disable gamepad when exocolonist window loses focus
  • optional setting to show controller glyphs on PC
  • backup fonts for Japanese, Korean, Sim/Trad Chinese, other accents
  • rename feedback menu to "report a bug"

  • fix upgrading cards at the gym
  • fix mid-life "Clear Past Memories" getting stuck in final event
  • fix missing tracking the airsquid events and card
  • fix missing beautiful vista card
  • fix "Delete All User Data" wasn't properly clearing everything
  • fix backpack gear card
  • fix gamepad shoulder button nav moving to unmet characters
  • fix button tooltips hanging around after menu closed
  • fix story text jumping down to the first button on first page
  • fix hidden pets not showing up in relax park events
  • fix tutorial for exploration zones not appearing
  • fix age 19 impossible battles being too easy
  • fix credits scroll jumping down after a few seconds
  • fix two infinite engineering / bravery skill loops
  • fix to audio issue that sometimes froze cards
  • fix mourning events playing after that status is gone
  • fix clearing chara stories when you load the game in glow
  • fix cancel button triggering "Go Home" instead of "Keep Exploring"
  • fix card challenge tutorial straight example cards
  • fix challenge goal box briefly saying overgoal on win/lose
  • fix bonus skills not awarded in skip card challenges mode
  • fix grabbing collectibles behind blocking events
  • fix showing unique cards you already have in choice buttons
  • fix black edges on some special ending art
  • fix card header backgrounds sometimes disappearing
  • fix rebellion skill increase bubble tooltip text
  • fix text scrolling down after canceling gifting
  • fix age 17 big portrait disappearing when you change appearance
  • fix navigation up from top-right chara on charas menu
  • fix pressing submit on popup input field now triggers OK button
  • fix undoing picking a friend in intro leaving bonus skill
  • fix not closing gallery when main menu opened via system menu
  • fix briefly showing wrong info on deck menu as it opens
  • fix characters being prematurely marked as met during dreams
  • fix being able to interact with battle menu during win/lose
  • fix incompatibility with turkish operating systems
  • fix disappearing gamepad reticle after using input field
  • fix saving email address on the feedback menu like we used to
  • fix northway games logo on linux / steam deck
  • fix software keyboard not opening on steam deck
  • fix left menu button on steam deck
  • fix around 50 minor typos and small narrative issues


Enjoy and take care!
- Sarah

Narrative adventure 'I Was a Teenage Exocolonist' out with Linux support

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist seems like a hard game to pin to a genre. It's a blending of a narrative adventure with RPG elements, deck-building and much more.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/09/narrative-adventure-i-was-a-teenage-exocolonist-out-with-linux-support

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is out!

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is officially released today! I started development almost exactly five years ago, and wowowow has the game ever grown up since then!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who supported Exocolonist and helped create it. Artists Meilee Chao, Eduardo Vargas, Sarah Webb, Leanne Roed, Sarah Roland, Diego De la Rocha, and our hundred card artsits for making the game so breathtakingly beautiful. Narrative designer Lindsay Ishihiro for making us laugh, cry, and fall in love with their moving prose. Gord, Em and others from A Shell in the Pit Audio, and all of our incredible musicians, for adding another dimension of wonder and beauty to the game.

Thanks to my husband Colin Northway for helping with tricky algorithms and game balancing, and for a tremendous amount of emotional support, idea-bouncing and code checks over the last five years.

Thanks to our publishers Finji, our QA and porting teams, and a very special thank you virtual hug to our incredible beta testers and all of our fans for your support and encouragement. And to my dad, who has logged hundreds of hours living life after life on the planet Vertumna.

Thank you, friends.



Okay enough mushy stuff, it's release day! Time to get in there and decide what sort of Teenage Exocolonist you'll be.

Vertumna awaits!

- Sarah ːnyaaː

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist Launch + IABO Stream Event!

To celebrate the launch of I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, we're streaming the game live to Steam during Indie Arena Booth Online! Swing by all weekend to catch streams from your favorite broadcaster, and be sure to hang out on launch day (Thursday, August 25th) to catch Syafire playing the game all day long!