 | Digital Release | Steam August 20, 2017 |
| Delisting | September 22, 2022 | |
| Developer | Jovian Industries Pronoia |
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| Publisher | Pronoia | |
| Available On | None | |
| Links | SteamDB page |
Delisting
Heart. Papers. Border. was delisted from Steam on September 22nd, 2022 on the same day that the following announcement was posted to the game’s store page.
For a long time, I thought I can find a way to finish this game. But Heart. Papers. Border. is just too difficult for me to continue. Not just because I am alone in developing this, but because this project holds too much of my painful past. I simply cannot look at it in a way that gives me any hope of a good finish line. Whenever I open the work files, I remember all the hopes and dreams I once had for this game, and how they all dissipated into thin air.
Heart. Papers. Border. was supposed to be a simple game. I wanted to make a nice little puzzle that poses some interesting questions while delighting you with some neat retro futuristic art. But for reasons I would rather forget, it ended up close to becoming a grand strategy game, where you must balance complex logistics in order to be able to experience everything the world of Heart has to offer. What was once supposed to be a tiny exercise in creativity for me, ended up with 26 countries, countless objectives, events, discoveries and more.
This project as it is right now, is the dream of someone else. I do not want to continue that dream, as it is not mine. I tried for a good few years, and despite experiencing very painful life events indeed, but I can’t. It took me this long to understand that Heart. Papers. Border. cannot be finished.
To those of you that remained with me despite all odds, thank you. And please forgive me – I know this is no good excuse, but I really did try. I think Heart. Papers. Border. will remain in your library, but it will be removed from Steam’s ecosystem.
With much love!
Steam Announcement – September 22nd, 2022
Laura
About the Game
Heart. Papers. Border. is an optimistic strategy game about travelling, freedom and changing the world! You are a freelance adventurer who wants to experience everything planet Heart has to offer, regardless of the inherited privileges determined by the country of your birth.
The current Heart. Papers. Border. build is in Early Access because it is an Early Alpha build featuring enough core mechanics and content to let you, awesome players, help us develop the best possible game from this concept!
Concept
You travel to learn, and as you pay a closer attention to what each country has to offer, you gather wisdom that you channel in a blog that grows in popularity. Eventually you come to grasp the power of your influence: where you pass, things change faster to the better, and locals that you have met increasingly demand openness from their governments. You have always been an optimist and dreamed of a completely border free world, but as you travel, you realize your influence into actually living to see your dream come true – that of living in a world without borders!
Visuals
Heart. Papers. Border. is inspired by NASA’s Visions of the Future posters, The Jetsons’ cartoon series and current real life events. We chose vibrant colors and a retro futuristic style to gently remind you that Heart, just like Earth, is moving towards openness, kindness and love, even though the movement might sometimes seem too slow to notice. But you can always make a difference!
Gameplay
Heart. Papers. Border. is as easy or as challenging as you want it to be. Through very simple control mechanics and up front information, you can strategize an optimal life that allows you to see the last border disappear in the course of your long and safe life. With multiple win conditions, challenging puzzles and morally difficult quests, Heart. Papers. Border. simply asks you how do you choose to live this virtual life
So how will you play?
- Create your Multipass and choose your Citizenship (Easy, Med, High, Random); this determines your starting conditions
- Take a look at your native country, look at the Top Bar to see your situation and starting conditions
- Click on touristic objectives to visit them, click on countries to apply for Visas and then visit them
- Gather hashtags from visiting objectives and write blog posts in your SpacePad
- Gain followers, become influential, and notice how planet Heart responds to your actions
A few Development Details
- This is a Pre Alpha game, and we have many features in the pipeline which are Work in Progress now. If you wish to keep track of our progress, we shared our live game design wiki so check our presence on the web. Please keep in mind:
- We aim to launch the first version of Heart. Papers. Border. somewhere this summer
- This is an evolving game, we aim to progressively update it until we or our community is out of ideas (which we hope is for years to come)
- We practice Open Game Design and welcome any feedback
Team
The core team is composed of Laura and Sebastian, who have been thinking about this idea long enough to invest their savings and spare time into actually building it. We were joined by the brilliant Pontus Lundén (The Westport Independent) for art and by the amazing Retro Brothers (of Easily Embarassed fame) for music