Ben Pollock

Project Introduction

1000xRESIST is a dark and gripping sci-fi adventure. The year is unknown, and a disease spread by an alien invasion keeps you underground. You are Watcher. You dutifully fulfil your purpose in serving the ALLMOTHER, until the day you discover a shocking secret that changes everything.

Players will experience a thrilling narrative told over 10 hours, with perspective shifts both literal and metaphorical as the game blends between 3rd person adventure, visual novel and first person walking simulator while throwing twists, turns and revelations at you until you question everything you think you know.

ABOUT THE STORY: In the near future we learn that we are not alone in the universe when a mysterious alien race of giant entities arrives. We call them the Occupants.They are not hostile, but their arrival is a death sentence nonetheless - they carry a disease that wipes out humanity in a matter of months. However, there is one survivor, a teenage girl called Iris - who is somehow immune.

1000 years later, the Occupants remain and Iris has become immortal. She has birthed a new society consisting exclusively of her own clones. She calls them Sisters and they call her the ALLMOTHER. Together, the Sisters all live in the Orchard - an underground bunker established by the ALLMOTHER - whilst the ALLMOTHER lives in her own compound on the front line of the war with the Occupants.

Every sister has an assigned function & purpose, while six sisters have special roles. Fixer (Engineering), Healer (Medial), Principal (Administration), Bang Bang Fire (Military), and you, Watcher. Your role is unique. You have the great privilege of reliving and interpreting the memories of the ALLMOTHER through a process known as Communion.

As the game begins, you are excited to embark on your first Communion. But all is not well. Your closest sister, Fixer, comes to you with a dangerous revelation. You have been lied to. The ALLMOTHER is not what she claims to be. Fixer's claims rock the foundations of your world, throwing everything you know and believe into doubt. After Fixer is executed for her treason, it falls to you to discover the truth.


ABOUT THE GAME: In 1000xRESIST players will dive into the memories of the ALLMOTHER. They will explore pivotal moments in her life, from high school days and the arrival of the Occupants to the creation of the Orchard and the birth of the first sisters.

Using a time-shifting mechanic, players will jump back and forth through moments in time within these memories to solve puzzles and access locked off areas and secrets. In between Communions, players can also explore the Orchard - a large underground hub area which houses you and your sisters, has many characters to speak to, and holds many things to uncover.

Players will experience a thrilling narrative told over 10 hours, with perspective shifts both literal and metaphorical as the game blends between 3rd person adventure, visual novel and first person walking simulator while throwing twists, turns and revelations at you until you question everything you think you know.

DEVELOPER NOTE: JUROR INFO ONLY - NOT FOR PUBLIC
1000xRESIST actively deals with intergenerational trauma, internalized racism, and the emotional fallout of the 2019 Hong Kong protests. Our desire is to investigate how pain and fear form habits that transform into culture over long periods of time. As diasporic creators, these cultures and traditions may be core to our distinct identity. We seek to ask: what do we take forward and what do we leave behind, where is the line where we become too encumbered to thrive and before we lose ourselves completely?

We would welcome any of the judges to talk about or share any information on the game with the public, with the exception of the developer note above about the ties to real world events in Hong Kong. Specifically, we do not want to share any information about the ways in which the game deals with the 2019 Hong Kong protests at this time with the public at this time.

About Developer

1000xRESIST is the first game from sunset visitor 斜陽過客, a Vancouver-based independent studio of majority Asian-Canadian diaspora creators with a decade of experience in dance, theatre, music, film, visual arts, and new media arts, bringing our background in the experimental performing arts to interactive media.

The game also features over 15,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue from a brilliant cast of Asian-Canadian actors and an incredible soundtrack from two composers.

1000xRESIST is born from an eclectic set of inspirations, including the games of Yoko Taro (NieR:Automata), the anime of Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue) and Naoko Yamada (A Silent Voice), and even the theatre of Robert Wilson (Einstein on the Beach), 1000xRESIST tells a story in ways only a game can while simultaneously bringing fresh ideas to interactive storytelling from theatre, dance, performance art, and cinema.