“Eden Extra Terra” is a science fiction game about a gender-divided colony named Eden in a faraway solar system.

The player controls Aya, the intersexed protagonist, who sets out to find his/her missing brother together with his/her friend Nasiha - the only outsider aware of his/her existence. By disguising yourself as either a man or a women, the characters in the world will respond differently to Aya and certain off-limit areas become accessible.

Quickly, Aya and Nasiha uncover more than just clues surrounding Luca's disappearance. Something that will impact the entire colony...


||| Background

This game is both a gameplay experiment as a statement towards society. For the gameplay aspect, I wondered what would happen if gender - chosen by the player - did have an impact on the story and interaction with NPCs. I chose to explore this as in practically all games that allow the player to chose the gender of the main character, gender as no to little impact on the story and the interaction with NPCs. For Eden Extra Terra I decided only to focus on interaction however due to time limitations.

As for the statement towards society: the game is a means to reflect upon the way we treat other people, often adjusting our prejudices based on their gender. I claim we treat the same person with the same personality, same skills and almost identical appearance differently based on what gender they happen to be. Not only that, our prejudices regarding men and women can cause us to reject or accept certain people for, say, job positions while they may or may not actually have the required skills. Or we may believe their personalities and interests are a certain way, based on only our prejudice on gender. I do not believe that is the way things should be.

For more in-depth information:
• Design Doc
• Thesis