The Final Frozen Frontier

“Basically, the aphelion is when the planet is the furthest away from the Sun,” developer Florent Guillaume explains to me over a video call. Most orbits, Earth’s included, are elliptical, so the distance between the orbiting object and the object it orbits can change over time. The aphelion is the point at the furthest tip of the oval, which makes it a “good analogy for this game,” according to Guillame.

Of course, the game Guillame is talking about is Aphelion, an upcoming sci-fi narrative adventure from developer Don’t Nod, where he works as a creative director. Like the titular astronomy term, the game’s astronaut protagonists are the furthest they (or any human) have ever been away from home. They’re exploring a newly discovered planet called Persephone, a hypothetical ninth planet beyond Neptune.

Concept art by William Seaman

An Extraterrestrial Expedition