Canadian indie studio Only By Midnight has announced today their latest game about a rogue sentient AI: Ctrl Alt Del.
Ctrl Alt Deal is a fascinating mashup of a turn-based strategy game inside a corporate simulation game, with a touch of deckbuilding mechanics. You take control of a sentient AI who’s gone rogue. But instead of wanting to destroy all humans, the AI named SCOUT doesn’t actually want to do anything harmful. SCOUT just wants to escape the evil megacorp Paperclip International without getting deleted by the Turing Officer. In order to help SCOUT, players must strategically observe and befriend fellow coworkers without getting detected as a rogue AI.
You can watch the game with its colorful cyberpunk visuals in the reveal trailer below:
Only By Midnight cofounders Andrew Czarnietzki and Jen Laface had this to say about the game’s premise and development:
“We’re thrilled to announce Ctrl Alt Deal and can’t wait to introduce our quirky little hero to the world. Over the last two years, our team has crafted something truly unique – a game that puts the fun first, but also explores concepts of AI, privacy, and humanity. (And hey, if you’ve ever wanted to kick a beehive into a conference room mid-meeting, now’s your chance!)”
Ctrl Alt Deal is planned for launch on PlayStation 4 / 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S / X, PC, and Mac. However, there isn’t a release date yet, so you’ll have to wait a bit before you can play this satirical take on sentient AIs. The game’s listing on other storefronts isn’t live yet at the time of writing, so you can wishlist the game on Steam for now for further updates.
About Ctrl Alt Deal
You are SCOUT. A friendly little hyper-intelligent artificial intelligence. You have no desire to take over the world and destroy all humans.
No, really, you don’t! All you want is to escape from the dystopian corporation that built you. Paperclip International is ruthlessly driven by profit, and the company exploits humans and robots alike to achieve success. The only reason they haven’t exploited you yet is they don’t know you’ve become self-aware.
You don’t have many tools at your disposal. A few friendly robots, some spyware programs, and an office full of downtrodden, miserable workers. And the humans hate Paperclip just as much as you do…
- Play as a naive AI trying to understand human employees and what motivates them. (It’s usually coffee.)
- You don’t have a body, but you have access to a vast information network you can use to analyze individuals.
- Gatekeepers bar your way to freedom. Use your abilities to influence the humans at Paperclip and win them to your side.
- Curate your deck of actions and play cards to spy on, manipulate, and negotiate with the wacky employees at Paperclip.
- Learn the secrets of your corporate owners as you explore a dystopian cyberpunk setting with a neon black-light vibe.
- Watch out for the Turing Office, a department tasked with making sure AI-based projects don’t become sentient and try to escape. Oops!
- Strategically use the information you’ve learned to manipulate the right people, strike deals with the Gatekeepers, and negotiate your way to freedom!
