9,000 Kilometers from Moscow: Why Unload Trucks and Search for Someone Else’s Cat in Red Passport: Deported
The protagonist has been deported from Japan. He ends up in Vladivostok without any money, while home is in Moscow, 9,000 kilometers away. In a situation like this, a road sign stops being useful information. Especially when it cheerfully tells you the distance to the capital, while you don't even have a ticket to the next stop.
I'm Stop-TussiN, the solo developer of Red Passport: Deported. This is the story of my game: a first-person adventure in which the journey home unfolds through hitchhiking, freight trains, odd jobs and conversations with people along the way.
A big goal, a small next step
“Get to Moscow” is a clear goal, but by itself it doesn't explain what to do right now. You can't pay for anything on the roadside with a compelling backstory. You have to look around: where does the road go, who might give you a lift, who needs help and what useful things can be found nearby?
This is the scale of adventure that interests me. An entire country lies ahead, while the nearest task fits neatly in a notebook. Unload a truck. Find a lost cat. Fix a fence. For a local resident, it's just a small inconvenience; for the protagonist, it's a chance to earn some money and keep moving.
At the same time, Moscow never disappears from the story. It gives meaning to these everyday errands. You carry boxes not to earn the honorary title of the region's best loader: the road home won't pay for itself.
Two ways to leave—and two different kinds of discomfort
Travel between cities revolves around choosing your transportation. You can hitchhike: you don't need money for the ride itself, but you have to rely on a stranger behind the wheel. Free doesn't mean carefree here.
The other option is freight trains. They let you cover ground quickly, but passenger-car comfort is out of the question: cold, dirt and a completely different side of the railway. Tea in a glass holder appears in this picture only as a pleasant memory.
I wanted to preserve the feeling of travel even during such an inconvenient journey. Stations, tracks and platforms remain places from which you can continue onward. But you have to look at them through the eyes of someone who still needs to figure out how to do that.
Why the protagonist lingers around garages
Red Passport: Deported features railway stations, markets, garages, trains and roadside cafés. These are the places a well-off traveler can easily pass by, busy with their schedule. The protagonist, however, has good reason to linger: this is where you'll find people with tasks to offer and items that grant access to restricted areas.
That's why exploration is tied to very practical questions. What kind of place is this? Who can you talk to? Is there something here that will help you get farther? The words of the people you meet aren't just there for atmosphere: dialogue helps move the story forward.
A good example of the game's overall tone can be seen in the quest journal shown in the screenshot. Someone at a gas station urgently needs a roll of toilet paper. They have a local catastrophe; you have a global one—thousands of kilometers to get home. For a moment, your interests coincide with remarkable precision.
That kind of humor feels appropriate to me alongside the grim setup. The protagonist has a major problem, but the world around him keeps going: cars are repaired, goods are transported, and someone is waiting for a bus. For everyone else, it's an ordinary day.
A stop is part of the journey too
A road has not only a direction, but pauses as well. For this story, a conversation at a rural bus stop, a visit to a shop and a walk around a station all matter. These are the places that create a sense of the distance between the starting point and home.
I'm making a game about a forced return, where harsh everyday life exists alongside a familiar sense of roadside romance. The premise doesn't promise a vacation: the protagonist has already lost the convenience of a well-laid plan. But there are still people, passing transport and the chance to gradually work your way out of trouble.
Red Passport: Deported continues the story of Red Passport: Ticket to Russia, but you don't need to know the first game to understand the plot. The full game is still in development. All images in this article are screenshots from the project's Steam page.
A free demo is already available on Steam. If this kind of road story appeals to you, you can try the demo and add the game to your wishlist—Red Passport: Deported.