I believe that at least two years ago (and my memory is consequently hazy), when I had no people to play strange games with and was not that interested in … anthropological games yet, I encountered a game matching the following points. So far trying to look through past Game Chef and Epimas lists (those are the two main places I imagined I might have seen it) and general searching have not led me back to it.
Description
The game is a two-player storytelling game set on a doomed space ship, on which only the human captain and a distinctly non-human alien are present. The game is about these two sharing their cultural heritage and what it means to be human/that particular type of non-human in the form of stories. It will end with some foreseeable catastrophic event, so it might even be a timed game or a poem. In my mental image (which is not trustworthy), the game is a conversation structure and does not contain a randomized resolution or generation mechanic.
Influences/Points of Confusion
There is a definite Darmok-vibe to the game. I believe, but don't know because I didn't know Darmok when I encountered the game and may therefore have mixed up things, that the episode is mentioned in the game's list of inspirations.
Last Transmission is a candidate I rejected recently, because while I might misremember several things, I believe I would have remembered a GM using Google Translate – some of the other mismatches I would accept as tricks of my faulty memory, but in concert they also tell me it's not The game.
ЭПОС ХИЩНИКА may be either an influence on the game or something I confuse it with, because I discussed this game with someone and they mentioned this short story. There may be more elements of Леонид Каганов's short story in my description than in the original game I encountered due to this.
