The Indie Game Magazine August 2014 | Issue 40 | Page 12

a conviction that there was always someone
watching over them. Growing up between
these two ways of looking at the world was …
interesting. I grew up with this tension in me.
Then, after 35+ projects, I got the
opportunity to explore exactly what I wanted
to explore – and since we had discovered that
real science worked well in these discussion
mysteries, that seemed like the way to go. So,
I thought, “Right, let’s explore the universe.
This project is going to be about me and the
players getting to understand the Universe.”
Once the decision was made, I started reading
and talking to astrophysicists. One of the
advantages of growing up with scientists is that you feel quite comfortable talking to them – so I did. Talk to
them. A lot.
IGM: Cloud Chamber has a singular, fixed ending, correct? How much room is there to explore “off the
beaten path” along the way?
Christian: That’s a really interesting question, because there are as many answers as there are players.
The great thing about this whole discussion mechanic is that you are free to go off on any tangent you like –
especially if you hook up with like-minded people, who keep the conversation flowing.
We see a lot of players who use an idea or a sentence from the game, and then go off on wild explorations,
through Wikipedia, space stuff, religion, conspiracies, and character motivations (even hair styles!). It’s as if
the story gives them momentum to explore something, either alone or with others, and when the momentum
runs out, they go back to the story, until the mood or the next idea sets the