Ether 5

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Note: This is a short, early demo for QGCon 2025 and does not reflect the game's final look, narrative expression, or full mechanics. 

Installation Disclaimer: If your system flags this as a virus because it is unsigned software, temporarily disable your antivirus protection.

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Ether 5 is a two-player, split-screen interactive fiction game developed in Godot by Abhik Hasnain and Adeline K. Piercy,  featuring simultaneous split-screen gameplay and interdependent co-op mechanics. Play as Ninith and Bex, queer cyborgs determined to acquire passage off-planet—together.

The Queer Relocation Federation is sending queers to habitable planets in deep exospace. But not all of us- only those lucky enough to have their name drawn by lottery. The supercomputer, Ether 5, hidden behind layers of impenetrable security somewhere inside the federation building, is in charge of the process. Ether 5 is supposedly impartial. In fact, the QRF claims that Ether 5 is a technical milestone in algorithmic neutrality. 

You, however, are scared. You keep hearing stories of families being separated. Some are sent to planets light-years away from their loved ones. Some are left here on Earth, screwed by randomness, while their partners head towards galaxies they will never hear from again. 

You and your partner share a co-processing unit, an inventory module, and a Geiga core. One moonlit night, you decide you’ve had enough. You can’t risk losing each other. So you plan to break into the QRF. Your goal? Find out what’s really going on within the confines of the federation facility. See what you can do to stay together, if anything. Use your unique skills and shared resources. Survive. And most importantly, don’t get caught. 

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