Video Game / Voyager-19

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Voyager-19 is a science fiction indie horror game made by miziziziz in the same vein as Iron Lung.

Set in a future where Humanity had begun exploring and colonising extrasolar planets thanks to invention of hibernation technology as well as slower-than-light star drives, you are the pilot of 'Voyager-19', one of a series of rudimentary, inexpensive, highly-claustrophobic spacecrafts equipped with such technologies designed to allow one crew to spend years to decades by themselves in interstellar space exploring distant star systems. In this game, you had been chosen to undertake a series of seven missions in the remote Okrulu Sector, taking pictures and radio samples of planets you encounter there, hoping to find habitable planets there which could be subjected to further exploration and eventual colonization.

Or at least, that is your official mission. Unofficially, you had also been sent there to ascertain the fate of the Magella Science Expedition, which had deviated from its original course and which Earth subsequently lost all communications with over there. Your ship is basic and your systems will gradually fail from power loss and radiation exposure as you explore the Okrulu Sector, but your superiors assured you if you plan everything well and managed your limited power supplies - and not go insane from claustrophobia or taken out by the harsh conditions of space - they should last long for you to complete your missions.

Nothing however could have prepared you or anyone to what you would end up encountering in that distant region of space...

This game contains examples of:

• Absent Aliens: Subverted. The game initially seems like it mainly relies on Nothing Is Scarier, Space Madness, and a mutiny breaking out during the Magella Science Expedition, but it turns out that several of the planets that the player analyzes are not only alien lifeforms, but a mature specimen ends up consuming the player. It's also heavily implied the aforementioned Magella Science Expedition was consumed by another similar alien prior.
• The Alleged Computer: The intro blurb flat-out states that the spacecraft's electronics are limited in capabilities and will only get worse as space conditions wear the spacecraft down. The only advance thing about it is that it's a touch-screen (even then it is available commercially as far back as the 1980s), but the controls are clunky, the OS looks outdated, everything takes at least a few moments to load (the files you can read in the file log can take years to decrypt), and the screen becomes filled with static as the degradation of your ship systems worsens.
• Apocalyptic Log: Some of the text files you find in your craft's file log came from the Magella Science Expedition which becomes accessible after you run into its remains. Yours can become one if you actually maintained communications with Earth throughout the game, especially towards the end.
• Artistic License – Space: While STL travel between the stars is realistically portrayed to take years even with the fastest non-FTL propulsion systems, travelling between planets within a system shouldn't be that fast - even travelling at near light-speed, the sheer distance between planets meant it would take at least several minutes for the spacecraft to get anywhere, instead of the mere seconds that it's shown to be.
• The Bad Guy Wins: One of the space monsters succeeds in eating the player and the ship they're in, with the Mission Control on Earth unable to do anything to stop it and its kin from continuing to eat more personnel and ships being sent to the Okrulu Sector.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: With the option to take yourself off life-support, you can invoke this at any point in the game if you can't stand the isolation of space or the implied slow death from failing systems of your spacecraft. Or to avoid being Eaten Alive by that giant space monster that catches the spacecraft at the end.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The planet-sized space monsters, one of which turns out to be responsible for the Magella Science Expedition's disappearance prior to the game, and what the player encounters in several solar systems in different stages of its life cycle. A mature one ultimately ends up eating the player.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: While travelling between the stars takes years, travelling between planets in a system is relatively quick, being able to get from one planet to another in seconds. This may or may not be pure a matter of perspective due to relativistic time dilation in-universe, but otherwise could just be liberties taken with space and rocket science for sake of gameplay.
• Claustrophobia: One of the most terrifying aspects of the game. Your entire mission is spent stuck inside what is essentially a crude metal coffin, surrounded by nothing but cables and flickering internal lights around you, as well as an interactive screen in front of you. You can only move your head and your invisible arms, but that's about it. While you can move your spacecraft, the clunky controls and automated navigation makes it less like an extension of your body and more like operating a large crane or bulldozer while new to the job.
• Closed Circle: The entire game begins and ends with the player character inside a spacecraft drifting alone in deep space with nothing but an interactive screen and eventually a giant space monster for company.
• Cosmic Horror Reveal: There's several planet-sized space monsters lurking among the distant worlds of the Okrulu Sector, likely claiming the area as their hunting grounds, disguising themselves as either barren planets to hide from inquisitive trespassers or habitable worlds to lure in potential prey. One was responsible for destroying the Magella Science Expedition - and now it's going to eat you.
• Cosmic Horror Story: Space is a cold, dark, and indifferent expanse utterly inimical to all Earthly life, and Earthly life itself is at most trespassing vermin or potential prey to truly colossal and hostile entities out there, which are big enough to be mistaken for or disguise themselves as celestial bodies. If some of the speculations of the text files you can access are accurate, it's entirely possible the whole universe itself or at least the astronomical bodies inside it are alive on some level and Earthly life like humans are little more than bacteria that lives on or inside larger host bodies in terms of scale.
• Downer Ending: You WILL eventually die out there in space, be it from space conditions, turning off your life-support, or from one of the giant space monsters mimicking a planet eating your spacecraft.
• Expy: The space monsters are one to Unicron, with the Monster in its mature and true form resembling Unicron's Alternate Mode (complete with sharp teeth and mouthhole), having the same Planet Eater behavior, and being hostile to other lifeforms.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Played straight perspective-wise and inverted in actuality. Thanks to hibernation technology, it can feel like only minutes have passed every time you explore a different star system, and you can complete the game in around 30 minutes. In-universe the missions are actually much longer, as travelling to the different star systems could take years due to limitations of the STL propulsion systems.
• Foreshadowing: Multiple pieces of foreshadowing can be found within the game, which clue you in to the fate of the Magella Science Expedition and your own eventual fate.
  • Several text logs imply the presence of the space monsters that you encounter throughout the game. One journal entry speculates on the similarities between earthly biological traits and celestial objects and wonders if life could operate on that scale. Another is a fragment of a scientific article or paper detailing the predatory/sexual habits of certain animals on Earth that hunt or attract via mimicry to lure in prey or mates.
  • The internal communications logs of the Magella Science Expedition which become accessible after you run into its remains gives further foreshadowing by noting that a certain habitable planet they spotted earlier is suddenly not around anymore.
  • Finally, in the main game itself, several strange-looking planets keep popping up in multiple star systems which you could've sworn you had already seen and taken readings of earlier.
• Eldritch Abomination: The space monsters lurking in the Okrulu Sector are these. They're planet-sized, they can move on their own without any apparent space propulsion capabilities, can Chameleon Camouflage their surfaces to look like barren or habitable planets, and finally they can open themselves like a flower to catch and eat prey with a giant rope-like tongue. And given the speculation on the text file it's entirely conceivable they aren't so much giant monsters disguised as planets as they could be actual planets, and all other celestial bodies in the universe could be just like it.
• Forced to Watch: If you encounter the entity towards the end, you have to take pictures of it opening up and slowly pulling you into its waiting maw.
• Flower Mouth: The planet-sized space monster which gets you at the end opens itself up rather disturbingly like a flower with thin, ribbon-like petals, with a ravening maw at the center of it.
• Genius Loci: At best, the thing that got the Magella Science Expedition and eventually you is just a giant space monster DISGUISING itself as a planet. At worst, the thing IS a living planet that preys on anything which runs into it. Any differences between the two scenarios are likely just semantics, however.
• Government Conspiracy: Implied with the ending blurb after all communications are lost with your craft. The authorities on Earth know something very weird is happening in the Okrulu Sector, but have not told the public of it yet, and are implied to have already sent multiple starship crews like your Player Character there on effective suicide missions just to find out what the hell is going on. The blurb grimly notes that they would eventually have to come clean to the public when the losses can no longer be hidden.
• Hope Spot: Yay, you found a habitable planet in your final mission! Now we can go home and - Wait, why is it opening up and grabbing my spacecraft with its tongue?!
• Human Popsicle: Reliable hibernation is one of the few technologies which allowed humanity in the game's future to travel to the stars alongside relatively fast space drives.
• It Can Think: Implied with the planet-sized space monsters. They don't attack just anyone they encounter, apparently opting to wait until wandering spaceships get really close and within range of their longue tongues, only then attacking their prey.
• Invisible Jerkass: The final planet-sized space monster you encounter in the game spends most of its time pretending to be a habitable planet. It could have taken you out as soon as you got to the final system, but it chose to wait until your ship got a little too close, let your guard down, and left yourself open to attack. It's implied that this is also how it or another space monster wiped out the Magella Science Expedition.
• Invincible Villain: Once the final planet-sized space monster grabs you with its tongue, there is no escape (except maybe turning off your life support).
• Jump Scare: You get a few during your missions. One involves a micrometeorite hitting your ship's hull. Another is the tongue of the final space monster which eventually eats your spacecraft.
• Late to the Tragedy: You eventually run into a floating pile of space debris which is all but implied to be the remains of the Magella Science Expedition. There's nothing there beyond an internal communications log that becomes accessible afterwards that can give you any clues as to what happened to them, however.
• The Masquerade: The ending blurb implies the authorities are hiding what's going on in the Okrulu Sector from the public, but notes that they would eventually have to come clean as they can no longer hide the losses from the missions sent to investigate the anomaly there. They also covered up the fact that the Magella Science Expedition had deviated from its planned course and then went missing.
• No Name Given: The space monsters that were responsible for the Magella crew's disappearance and which ultimately consume the player are never given a name.
• Non-Standard Game Over: You can turn off your life support at any point of the game. It will eventually kill you, getting you one of these.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Apart from some contextual introductory fluff, a mission log on your computer, and a few incomplete text files which become accessible, you know absolutely nothing about what's going on in this game. Not what Earth is like at this time. Not what little humanity knows about the Okrulu Sector. Not a clue about what happened to the Magella Science Expedition. And certainly not what the hell is that thing which ultimately does you in at the end of the game is.
• Overly Long Tongue: The final planet-sized space monster eventually catches your spacecraft with one of these, pulling you into its maw.
• Planet Eater: The space monster that eventually catches your spacecraft is implied to be this trope, given that it's big enough to mimic a planet. It's entirely conceivable that the habitable planet spotted by the Magella Science Expedition disappeared not because the monster was disguising as itself as it, but because the monster actually ate it...and then took its form to lure you in.
• Ragnarök-Proofing: Despite being a cheap, hastily-built piece of crap, the Voyager-19 spacecraft actually holds up pretty well against the rigors of interstellar space travel. Your life support will keep you alive so long as you have enough power for it (and don't turn it off), and travelling to and across the Okrulu Sector actually takes years as you don't have any FTL drive, with your superiors assuring you that your spacecraft is built to last long enough for you to finish your missions. The Magella Science Expedition's spacecraft is even more impressive, with the internal communications log you can access during the game suggesting that the vessel should be able to last around 60 years, but can be pushed to 100 years at its limit.
• Red Herring: One of the internal communications logs of the Magella Science Expedition you can access after running into its remains seems to suggest the reason why it deviated off course and disappeared was due to the mission leader cutting off communications with Earth deliberately and taking the expedition off course to investigate some theory or anomaly. It is never revealed whether it has anything to do with what eventually caused them to disappear in the game, but a player might be initially mislead into thinking this is a 'renegade captain' scenario.
• Resources Management Gameplay: As time passes, your spacecraft's systems began to degrade. This is most apparent with its declining power levels, which steadily becomes less available with each mission, forcing you to ration what you have to each individual subsystem you control to complete your surveys and investigation.
• Shout-Out:
  • The 'Okrulu Sector' sounds phoenetically similar to the Koprulu sector.
  • A hostile Planet Eater that assumes the form of a planet, complete with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Are we talking about the space monster or Unicron?
• Sleeper Starship: All starships in this setting are this, thanks to the lack of Faster-Than-Light Travel but the presence of reliable hibernation technology.
• Slow-Loading Internet Image: Due to limitations in electronics, pictures you take of planets can be slow to load, which can be a bit frustrating if the image is not centered as it mean you would have to start again to take a valid planetary image.
• Space Madness: It is easy to lose your nerve in this game from sheer isolation of deep space, the claustrophobic environment of your spacecraft and the multiple jump scares caused by space conditions. The fact that you can turn off your life support means it's entirely possible some crews piloting similar crafts could have been lost from pilots being Driven to Suicide by the unbearable conditions. Or taking the easy way out when being caught by a planet-sized space monster like the one lurking in the Okrulu Sector.
• Starfish Aliens: The space monsters are planet-sized alien beings that look or resembles nothing like any lifeform seen on Earth. While they have a heartbeat (or at least something akin to it), do need to eat, do die from natural causes (the first specimen encountered is a corpse, according to Word of God), reproduce, hatch from planet-sized eggs (the second-to-final one encountered, to be specific), and don't need to consume oxygen (due to living in the depths of space), it's unknown how exactly they function biologically, what composes their bodies, and whether they are even carbon-based lifeforms to begin with.
• Suicide Mission: Despite the assurances given to you, you are never expected to return home alive. The authorities know there's something strange over at the Okrulu Sector, and have previously sent multiple other ships and pilots to investigate that they also lost contact with. You are merely the latest sent there to find out what's going on.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The final space monster which catches your spacecraft at the end is absolutely determined to eat you once its tongue catches your spacecraft, and will absolutely not let go regardless of the player's attempts to evade or escape it.
• Taken Off Life Support: You have the option of taking yourself off life support, which results in a Non-Standard Game Over. There's just enough time to opt out via that when your spacecraft is caught by the giant space monster at the end, if you believe it is Better to Die than Be Killed.
• That's No Moon: Those Earth-sized and later Earth-like planets you come across several times? They're actually planet-sized space monsters, one of which is responsible for the Magella crew's disappearance, and you're next on their list.
• Used Future: Everything looks crude and cobbled together. Your spacecraft, a Voyager-19 one-crew space explorer, is described from the fluff as a hastily-designed and cheaply built piece of crap, filled with rusty cables, flickering lights and an interactive screen with an outdated-looking operating system which gradually becomes filled with static as your spacecraft degrades from power loss and harsh space conditions over the course of your seven missions. Even the remains of the Magella Science Expedition you can run into looks like parts of American or Soviet space stations from the 1970s-1990s.
• Walking Spoiler: Many of the tropes on this page are hidden under filter to avoid spoiling the surprise that there are aliens the size of planets encountered throughout the game, one of which which may be responsible for the loss of the Magella Science Expedition and of which a mature adult also catches you at the end of the game.

REPORT: Voyager-19 craft has failed to establish communications. Losses cannot be hidden from the public any longer. Recommend waiting until election cycle is over to announce.