Over a million players experienced the first Citizen Sleeper, and heard whispers of The Starward Belt – an expanse of sparsely inhabited space surrounding Erlin’s Eye. A loose cluster of asteroids, stations, colonies, and pre-fall megastructures, The Belt lived rent-free in the imaginations of players everywhere. But of course, it didn’t fully exist – until Gareth Damian Martin decided to put pen to paper.

The resulting sequel is a contemporary sci-fi odyssey. The Sleeper’s journey takes them through a beleaguered deep-space ice mine; a bustling cosmopolis locked in eternal night; a vast, ruined space gate; and a secret outpost on the edge of everything. Piloting a small spacecraft called The Rig, the player can assemble a crew of waifs, drifters, friends, and misfits – and, just maybe, forge them into a community.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Design Works, written by John Rogers (Gaming in the Wild, Ultros: Design Works), takes you even deeper inside the Starward Belt. Through previously unseen character sketches, architectural diagrams, and in-depth interviews with Gareth Damian Martin, Guillaume Singelin, and Amos Roddy, we shine a light on the process of creating these unforgettable characters and places. The result is a fascinating and detailed look at Citizen Sleeper 2’s improbable untold story: a comprehensive document of its journey from inspiration to conception, development, and release. 

• Go deeper into The Belt — read an in-depth, first-hand account of the creation of Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

• Transhumanist cyberpunk — learn about the inspirations behind a modern sci-fi masterpiece

• Unseen art — go beyond the screen, into the pages of Guillaume Singelin’s sketchbook

• Stunning soundtrack — hear from Amos Roddy about the creation of an evocative deep-space soundscape