Indie Hour - Citizen Sleeper
Table of Contents
Hey it's Tarrmu and welcome to another episode of Indie Hour where we talk about the latest independent video games that may have passed you by, and in today's video we're going to be talking about Citizen Sleeper is ScFi Cyberpunk game from the Studio Jump Over The Age, a one-person studio founded by Gareth Damian Martin.
Citizen Sleeper is a choose your own adventure story that marries elements of a tabletop game with variety of compelling and charming characters. The game will provide a set amount of actions that a player complete in a said say, that are referred to as cycles, managing your survival and the relationships, and situations you find yourself in along the way. You're based on a space station called The Eye, and throughout the Eye there is a wealth of opportunities to take part in and two free DLCs, that further branch out and explore the groups, politics and conflict that take place throughout the eye. The visuals, the character design are all charming and distinct and the music is atmospheric and and really captures both the bleakness, and optimism that is found throughout Citizen Sleepers story
The game is structured around cycles—days in which you spend your limited actions to manage survival, relationships, and progress. At the top of the screen, you’ll see the three systems that drive every choice you make:
- Condition – your body’s overall health.
- Energy – how much stamina you have left.
- Dice – rolled at the start of each cycle, representing your odds of success on tasks.
These systems are tightly interlinked. Low condition reduces the quality of your dice rolls, while running out of energy will damage your condition. Balancing these three elements is key to staying alive.
As the game opens up, you’ll constantly weigh decisions:
- Do you spend your credits on food to restore energy?
- Do you work for money, knowing it costs precious stamina?
- Do you save up for better medication to stabilize your condition?
- Or do you push forward on one of the many character storylines instead?
Every task in Citizen Sleeper carries a degree of risk. Dice rolls determine whether you succeed or fail, and outcomes can be:
- Positive – success with rewards.
- Neutral – limited or no progress.
- Negative – consequences for your health, energy, or reputation.
Your Sleeper also comes with skills tied to categories like Endure or Engineer. Investing upgrade points in these skills can improve dice results for certain actions. While this gives you freedom to specialize, it’s worth noting that the game can feel forgiving—mistakes are often salvageable, which may frustrate players looking for harsher role-playing stakes.
The main story revolves around carving out a new life for yourself on The Eye. While your Sleeper’s condition is fragile, the heart of the game lies in the relationships you form.
The cast is diverse and compelling: you’ll meet scrappy mercenaries, ambitious salvagers, struggling families, and powerful corporate agents. Through these stories, Citizen Sleeper explores themes of:
- Survival under corporate oppression.
- The scarcity of resources.
- What it means to inhabit a synthetic body.
- The universal hope of a fresh start.
These characters and subplots intertwine beautifully, and checking in on them cycle after cycle becomes one of the game’s most rewarding rhythms.
The presentation is striking. The visual design—character portraits, UI, and locations—leans into a bold, distinctive style that sets it apart from more traditional sci-fi aesthetics.
But what truly elevates the atmosphere is the soundtrack by Amos Roddy. Its ambient, synth-driven soundscapes perfectly capture the melancholic isolation of living on a space station, while also underscoring the hope and humanity found in fleeting moments of connection. It’s one of the game’s strongest selling points, enhancing every emotional beat.
To bring this whole episode together, Citizen Sleeper is a worthwhile experience for anyone that is looking for a game with a strong story-driven focus, and the tabletop mechanics add a level of chance and choice to the actions you make throughout your playthrough. Overall this absolutely one worth checking out, and I'm hoping to check out the sequel sometime in the near future.
Let me know your thoughts down below or if there are any games that you'd like to see me cover on the channel, as always I am Tarrmu and this has been Indie Hour, if you enjoyed the video consider giving us a like and if you really enjoyed the video consider subscribing. Thanks for watching.
