J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars(formerly known as J.U.L.I.A. Enhanced Edition) is an acclaimed innovative narrative driven adventure game which was developed thanks to an overwhelming support from a successful crowdfunding campaign.

The story centers on Rachel Manners, a 35 year old astrobiologist. She is a member of an elite group of scientists, chosen to embark on one of the most critical missions ever conceived on Earth. Now Rachel is alone, orbiting an unknown planet. Her only companions are J.U.L.I.A., the space probe’s artificial intelligence and Mobot, a huge reconnaissance robot. Together, this unlikely trio will explore the mysteries of this solar system. But are they prepared for what they will find?

 The game was released  September 2014 on STEAM and in our own DRM free store.

Story

After countless years of careful space observation, the enormous telescope Chandra 17 suddenly locates a solar system quite similar to our own. As all earthly observatories turned their attention towards this new discovery, a signal of artificial origin is detected from deep within the system.

Reaction was immediate and a mission plan was conceived. No expense was spared in the construction of a massive space probe. It was designed and equipped to be ideally suited for the ultimate challenge: to meet and study extraterrestrial sentient life-forms. Equal care was taken with the crew. Only the most prominent scientists were selected and trained to ideally represent planet Earth. Everything was perfectly planned and success was certain. Yet somehow, everything has gone terribly wrong…

Now, imagine being jolted awake by an emergency alarm. As your surroundings come into focus, you realize you were deep in cryogenic sleep on a vast space probe. But why you are there is an elusive memory. Disoriented, you rush to the control room searching for answers. Once there you learn from the ship’s AI that not only have you been asleep for decades, but you are also the last surviving member of the probe’s crew.

To make matters worse, the probe is severely damaged by a disastrous impact with a passing meteoroid swarm. First, you must make repairs. Not only is your own survival at stake, but you need to find out what happened to the crew and why you alone survived.

Are you prepared to:

• step into the spacesuit of Rachel Manners and find out why she was the sole survivor of this ill-fated expedition?
• utilize an ingenious MOBOT – a mobile robot designed for planetary exploration to investigate this solar system and all its wonders?
• solve the mystery of the mission’s failure and locate the missing crew?
• travel to six unique planets and uncover their secrets?
• solve puzzles, gather clues and communicate with the most temperamental artificial intelligence ever designed?
• Are you prepared for… J.U.L.I.A.

Gameplay

J.U.L.I.A. is an interfaced based adventure game. Throughout the game you control various computer interfaces and a huge reconnaissance robot which will provide you with a pair of safe eyes, or to be more specific, cameras for planetary exploration. After all it’s the robot who risks his circuits down there while you are watching from the relative safety of your orbiting space probe.

And what will you be doing in J.U.L.I.A.?

1. Living in a probe  – inside the probe you can build or upgrade equipment, necessary for your quest. You can repair broken parts, scan planets, harvest necessary materials and travel to various planets of the solar system.
2. Explore the planets – this new mode is exclusive to the Enhanced Edition. You will now see a detailed version of the environment and through contextual menus, explore and interact with objects of interest.  To prevent any kind of pixel hunting issues, Mobot has a built in scanning function which shows all active regions in the current scene.
3. Interact with devices – from hacking password protected datapads or reading private communication between crew members to analyzing found objects for biological, chemical, spectral or data-driven information, you’ll have a lot of fun with the gadgets in the game.
4. Solve puzzles – J.U.L.I.A. is a puzzle oriented game with challenges integrated into the story. You won’t be solving slider puzzle to open a piano cover this time.
5. Do some serious mind mapping – the Enhanced Edition features an inventive new way to think about the story. Through an original mind mapping interface you will uncover critical pieces of the story entirely by yourself.

To keep you on track, the new game integrates a mission log which helps you: “clearly understand” your current goals; “track” what you’ve already solved; and if you run into any kind of critical mission data, stores it for you so you don’t have to look for a pen and paper, unless you really want to.

Unlike the original J.U.L.I.A., the new game will feature a lots of optional contents. While someone can always race  through the game and ignore side-stories and complementary “quests”, gamers who are thorough will be rewarded with much more interesting stories and in general they will enjoy a more intricate game. It’s up to you! However you can track your thoroughness in the mission log, which also shows you how you are doing.

System Requirements

J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars supports two video modes: 1920×1080 and 1280×720.

MINIMUM:

• OS: Vista
• Processor: Dual Core 2 GHz or higher
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: Minimum resolution: 1280×720 with at least 128 MB VRAM accelerated card
• DirectX: Version 10
• Hard Drive: 4 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX compatible soundcard (Mandatory)

The game is available for PC Windows, Mac OS and Linux operating systems.