Developed by indie dev, Jainan Sankalia under the title “Interstellar Regulations”, and based off of the short story The Cold Equation by Tom Godwin, Cold Equations is a short 5 minute experience that tries to capture the emotional impact of the story – which I recommend you read.

The story revolves around a small ship in space, on its way to provide a vaccine to 6 infected colonists on a different planet; the ship is supplied with limited fuel and has strict weight restrictions – because the physics behind atmospheric re-entry are calculated down to the last gram.

So when the ship’s captain discovers, half way, that a young girl has stowed away in one of the lockers so that she could get a chance to see her brother – things get a bit complicated.

She pleads innocence and ignorance, and reasons emotionally; and amidst all of this, the captain is put in the position where he has to make a difficult decision – either the girl gets flushed out, or everyone dies.

Except there’s no decision – just the task of balancing a cold equation.

The game takes place inside the ship, and toys with you around the concept of failure.

You can open and explore the various compartments and cupboards of the ship looking for things to flush out into the blackness of space – all while the young girl, Marilyn, pleads and begs you not to follow through with the inevitable.

It took me a number of playthroughs, as well as reading the story, to learn that it is, indeed, inevitable.

The game stays true to it’s namesake – and kind of leaves you feeling like you need to try harder – and while it’s difficult to describe it as a game – especially because it feels like there’s nothing you can do – you’ll invariably play through quite a number of times, trying to do just that.

Cold Equations is an IGF 2011 entry, and you can try it out for yourself over here – and when you’re done, let the words from the original story, echo in your head:

“The empty ship still lived for a little while with the presence of the girl who had not known about the forces that killed with neither hatred nor malice. It seemed, almost, that she still sat, small and bewildered and frightened, on the metal box beside him, her words echoing hauntingly clear in the void she had left behind her: “I didn’t do anything to die for… I didn’t do anything…”

Yeeesh.