A Space for the Unbound

Director(s)Dimas Novan DelfianoProducer(s)Eka Pramudita M.Designer(s)Programmer(s)Ahmad FadlillahArtist(s)Writer(s)Composer(s)EngineUnity^[1]Platform(s)ReleaseJanuary 19, 2023Genre(s)AdventureMode(s)Single-player

A Space for the Unbound is an Indonesian adventure video game developed by Mojiken Studio and published by Toge Productions. It was released on January 19, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game is set in the late 1990s and follows Atma and his girlfriend Raya, who live in a suburban area in Indonesia, as they explore their newly attained magical abilities and deal with supernatural powers that threaten their existence.

The game designer's focus was capturing what it felt like to grow up in Indonesia in the 1990s and preserving his memories as an Indonesian through the game. The game received positive reception from critics, with reviews focusing on the game's solid sense of place and heartfelt story.

The player controls Atma, an Indonesian high school student who is getting close to graduation with his girlfriend Raya.^[3] Through the powers of a red book that Atma finds, he gains the ability to "space dive" into people's minds and help fix their problems through puzzles that the player completes.^[3][4] These changes can affect the person's point of view and help them deal with their trauma.^[3][4] His girlfriend Raya, through the same book, gains "X-Men-esque powers", including levitation and changing the nature of reality.^[3] They face the issues that come from their new powers and investigate the supernatural forces that threaten their existence.^[3] Later on, Atma obtains a magic wand and gains the ability to "rift dive" to another time in a location.

Throughout the game, the player can interact with people, objects, and cats.^[3][4] Most of the game is at a slower pace and involves exploring and talking with people through point-and-click gameplay.^[3][4] The game features several minigames that help ground the game in its place and time, like practicing football and dodging falling objects with button inputs; fighting minigames that involve pressing a sequence of buttons in a time limit to attack and pressing the button when the moving bar hit the target. The game also features some cats, which the player can pet and name.^[4]

Atma and his girlfriend Raya, two high school students in Surabaya, are nearing graduation but are uncertain about their futures. Instead of focusing on their plans, they create a bucket list of things to do together, starting with watching a movie. Atma, meanwhile, frequently dreams of writing a story with a young girl named Nirmala, who gives him a red book that allows him to "spacedive" and enter people's minds. All of these dreams end with him drowning, trying to save Nirmala, and waking up at his school desk.

During their cinema outing, Raya reveals she has reality-altering powers, creating a world inspired by Cat Wonderland. However, the cats warn them of an impending apocalypse, and the couple escapes. In the real world, Atma notices the cinema staff acting like cats and uses his spacediving ability to restore their sanity. Afterward, Raya falls unconscious, and a crack appears in the sky, signaling the start of an anomaly.

Sometime later, Atma reawakens at his school desk and discovers Raya is seemingly well. However, she collapses again after attempting to stop the anomaly. With the help of their adopted cat, Admiral, who gains the ability to speak, Atma prepares a cake, hoping it will restore Raya's strength. However, as soon as the cake is ready, Erik, a school bully, runs over and kills Admiral. In a panic, Erik knocks out Atma and takes the cake to deliver to Raya as an apology. Upon catching up to Erik at their school, Atma spacedives into Erik’s mind, uncovering the trauma that has shaped his violent behavior. As Atma is about to exit Erik's mind, Nirmala appears, ejects Atma into the real world, and turns Erik into a werewolf-like monster. Raya intervenes and restores Erik to normal, but seemingly kills him while disregarding his apologies before passing out again. Outside, the crack in the sky expands.

Atma reawakens to find Raya missing and the school busily preparing for a community festival. As he searches for her, he encounters strange behavior from the townspeople, many of whom have had their minds altered by Raya in retaliation for past slights. With help from his classmate Lulu, Atma restores the affected people to normal. Atma discovers that Raya has been using her powers to rewrite reality as an attempt to create a life where she and Atma could be happy together, free from the traumas of her past. Atma also learns that as class president, Raya was tasked with organizing the festival but failed to meet expectations and was under immense pressure. Nirmala appears again during a spacedive and transforms Lulu into a humanoid swan.

Atma finds Raya on a bridge overlooking the city, where she seemingly kills Lulu and reveals her intent to control the town. Atma attempts to spacedive her, but upon realizing what he is about to do, Raya destroys the book and summons a meteor to crash into the city.

Atma awakens to find the city in ruins and debris raining down from the sky; despite this, the city's people continue to celebrate the festival. Marin, a classmate of Atma, takes him to safety. Upon reaching the school's ruins, Atma discovers Marin and Raya fighting and protects her from Raya's powers. He finds himself in a spacedive dimension and learns that Marin was once close friends with Nirmala and Raya. However, Marin grew distrustful after learning about Atma, convinced he was an imaginary friend and eventually neglected to protect Raya, who faced harassment and bullying at school. Nirmala turns Marin into a humanoid snail, and Raya destroys her before falling unconscious. Atma finds the spacediving book on her, allowing him to enter Nirmala's mind.

In a flashback, it is revealed that the game's events took place inside Raya's mind and that Nirmala and Raya are the same person — Raya Fitri Nirmala. As a child, Raya met Atma, who had run away from home seeking to start a career in writing, and the two became friends. One day, Atma, being unable to swim, drowned trying to save Nirmala. Raya, who was facing abuse from her father, in a moment of resentment, separated "Nirmala" from herself, representing her hope and positivity and believing her to be at fault for Atma's death. Since then, Nirmala has been turning people who have wronged Raya into monsters, trying to get her attention.

In the final confrontation, Raya has transformed into a giant blue figure, driven by the belief that controlling her world will protect her from further pain. After realizing Raya's motives, Atma attempts to convince her to return to the real world with him, to no avail. After avoiding an onslaught of attacks from Raya, her insecurities and traumatic memories of those who had abused her accumulate, allowing Atma to enter her mind.

Atma finds himself in a memory of Raya's home and learns her father became abusive due to increasing debt and disapproving of her creative endeavors, and that the story he and Nirmala wrote was an allegory for her life. He finally convinces Raya that attempting to manufacture her happy ending hurts her more and that she must face her fears, guiding her through the memories of her traumatic past. Raya ultimately accepts her past and ascends from the dream world, leaving Atma behind as a memory.

In the real world, Raya, now visibly older, awakens in a hospital bed, having recovered from an unstated incident. Her mother, now separated from her abusive spouse, plans to move the family to a new city. She goes out for one last walk around the neighborhood, reflecting on her journey and healing.

If the player completes all the items on the bucket list, a bonus post-credits scene shows Raya visiting the place where Atma died, leaving a bouquet and the spacediving book.

Dimas Novan Delfiano, the game director from the development studio Mojiken for A Space for the Unbound, began development on the title in 2015. A team of two to three people began work on the game while the studio also developed multiple other games simultaneously.^[5] Dimas completed an initial prototype of the story in 2015, which served as a core for what would be developed.^[5] Dimas found the first few years of development incredibly difficult, as he struggled to build a substantial game from the beginnings of the prototype.^[5] In 2019, Dimas noted that he had found the "right formula for the game" and Mojiken released a demo that "was released to positive reception" in 2020.^[5] Around 2020, everyone at the studio (numbering about 12-14 people) were able to shift focus to working on the game.^[5]

Dimas since a young age wanted to create a game set in an Indonesian high school, and was inspired by the concept of an "anime pilgrimage," where people travel to compare real-life locations against their anime-depicted counterparts.^[5][6] He wanted to highlight his personal experience of growing up in 1990s Indonesia, and wanted players to feel the same passage of time that he had experienced.^[5][6] Dimas was inspired by multiple Japanese concepts during development, including "Mono no aware," or the "pathos of things," which Dimas described "as an appreciation for or awareness of impermanence and the passage of time."^[5] He noted that "every generation has its own memories and [A Space for the Unbound] is our memories and we want to preserve that before we completely forget about it."^[5] Dimas said that it was his goal to preserve his memories as an Indonesian growing up in the 1990s in the game.^[5][6] The game was heavily inspired by the works of Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinkai.^[3]

The game heavily features anxiety and depression in the story, and Dimas and the rest of the development team consulted professionals for their input to help with telling it appropriately.^[6] The space diving mechanic was created to help explore these themes in more detail.^[6]

A Space for the Unbound received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregate website Metacritic.

Rock Paper Shotgun's Rachel Watts said that the game "takes a supernatural teen drama [and] gives it real heart," and called its release "a wonderful start to 2023."^[3] RPGFan's Audra Bowling felt that the game succeeded in blending both despair and anxiety with themes of hope and healing, and that it could help players see their lives from a new perspective.^[2] Nintendo Life's Lowell Bell felt that the game's length was padded out by unnecessary challenges, but still recommend it in a positive review for its touching story.^[4]

Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell called the game "magic" and said that "in many cases you will be deeply, maybe profoundly, moved."^[10] TouchArcade's Shaun Musgrave praised the game's support for the Nintendo Switch's touchscreen during dialogue sequences, and said it was "one of the best narrative driven indie games I've played."^[14] Nintendo World Report's Joe DeVader felt it was a "must play" for people who enjoyed narrative experiences in video games.^[11]

A Space for the Unbound appeared on lists of the best games of 2023 made by Kotaku^[15] and Inverse.^[16]

Awards and nominations

Date	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2023	The Game Awards 2023	Games For Impact	Nominated	[17]
2024	New York Game Awards	Off Broadway Award for Best Indie Game	Nominated	[18]
	24th Game Developers Choice Awards	Social Impact Award	Nominated	[19]
		Audience Award	Nominated

• A Space for the Unbound at Chorus Worldwide
• A Space for the Unbound at Toge Productions
• Prototype download at Itch.io