GATT - Episode 1 Demo

A social media app threatens to launch a civil war when it’s discovered that criminals use it to siphon funds from the government.

This app, the Galactic Ansible Transmissions Terminal (GATT), was designed to allow for efficient, near-instantaneous communication between star systems during wartime. However, an intentional flaw coded in by one of its developers left the program vulnerable to cyber-criminals. While most used this opportunity to launder money with offplanet bank accounts, one user took it upon himself to repurpose GATT’s source code into the social media platform it is today. At launch, it was a massive hit, almost immediately usurping the most popular platform at the time, SpeakEZ. And this popularity carried into its first few years, leading to online discourse regarding secret features hidden in the app’s code.

Of these features, most were harmless developer easter eggs or photo filters, but one stood out as particularly suspicious. Forum users had become fixated with the concept of an underworld bounty hunting network disguised as a hidden beta for an upcoming job board update. Eventually, this conspiracy theory grew relevant enough to warrant a federal investigation of GATT’s parent company, Talbot Co. Though preliminary findings were the only part of the report released to the public, it was enough to show that users could post their target (which could range from weapons and drugs to people) as a contract with an associated bounty that other users could see. Those who decided to claim these contracts were known as Hunters.

The reigning galactic superpower, a regime known only as Beacon, failed to paint Hunters as the monster poachers, drug dealers, and contract killers that they were. Instead, the weary and wartorn society around them embraced the concept of Hunting, welcoming them with open arms. As a result, a number of notable Hunters were launched into overnight superstardom, causing a shift in perception (dubbed online as “crime culture”) that led to millions in merchandising revenue for media companies, private contractors, and trade unions called guilds. This was a time nostalgics lovingly dubbed The Golden Age of Hunting.

Nearly three decades later, growing war tensions with sovereign star systems pushed Beacon to pass legislation, designating neutral, safe star systems, protected by their naval force. This, however, arrived with one condition: moving forward, any felony charge would result in zone exile. Though there were a number of other neutral zones to travel to, if one failed to reach one within 48 hours, they would automatically warrant the title pirate by law, barring access to all of them. From then on, they would have to adapt to living on the harsh outskirts of civilization or die. Within the first years of its lifespan, these regulations had caused an unprecedented spike in the separation of families. 

Soon thereafter, mass rioting in every neutral zone gave way to martial law, which did nothing but prompt a class action lawsuit: The People vs Beacon. With most of their resources going towards expanding their military, Beacon couldn’t afford to take this suit lying down, instead opting to provide contradicting evidence: the rest of the Talbot Co. investigation report. The suit was dropped, but the damage had been done. The report revealed that since GATT was originally created as a government-sanctioned project, all funds related to the project have been withdrawn from Beacon’s Federal Reserve. This meant that, since the inception of Hunting, every single monetary incentive for fulfilled contracts had been ripped straight out of Beacon’s wallet.

The ramifications of making such sensitive information public were immediate and far-reaching. With soldiers patrolling the streets and citizens stuck indoors, suddenly donating to a favorite Hunter had become a form of protest that fans could perform in their pajamas. For the following months, users flooded (and sometimes crashed) GATT’s servers on a near-daily basis. While this new influx of income encouraged some popular Hunters to grow complacent in their efforts or worse (take the money and go into hiding), the vast majority of them chose to do right by their supporters. This marked the beginning of what became known as The Silver Age of Hunting.

This free 40+ minute demo follows the parallel storylines of ex-felon Violet Beck and infamous Hunter Wake Dust as their paths are forcefully entwined by a reopened murder case, a loan, and a grudge. GATT is a 3D turn-based JRPG-style crime drama space opera with a focus on non-linear character progression and episodic storytelling. Download below.