Video games that evoke a comfy vibe typically goal to get gamers to unwind in a soothing digital world, permitting them to flee the stresses of the actual world. Nevertheless, for the upcoming narrative puzzle-adventure recreation D-Topia from developer Marumittu Video games, it is all about immersing gamers in a supposed utopia that is heat and alluring – but it additionally raises some profound questions in regards to the very nature of what a utopia is.
I acquired to play an early construct of D-Topia at Tokyo Recreation Present 2025, which is certainly one of writer Annapurna Interactive’s newest choices. Throughout my hands-on time with the comfy, introspective narrative recreation about dwelling in a utopia, I spoke with lead artist Hiroco Shiino and lead programmer Akira Mitsuhashi to study extra about their mysterious puzzle-adventure recreation, which explores questioning the world round you and your home in it.
Paradise misplaced?
Set in a far future the place humanity has established a utopian society, D-Topia focuses on a group of staff and their AI assistants dwelling collectively in a world that has been curated for his or her well-being. Taking part in as a brand new resident to the group referred to as Paradise, you are assigned to assist maintain the group going by making repairs to the mainframe on a each day schedule.
Key data
Developer: Marumittu Video games
Writer: Annapurna Interactive
Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Sequence X/S, Nintendo Change 2, Nintendo Change
Launch date: 2026
As you identify a routine that includes going to work, interacting together with your neighbors, and studying extra about Paradise, questions will start to come up in regards to the nature of your cozy and carefree existence, and whether or not peace and concord can really be curated for folks.
D-Topia has such an attention-grabbing premise for what seems to be a heat vibes narrative journey recreation. Because the protagonist, you step by step develop into accustomed to the routine of being a employee, which includes fixing puzzles that additionally function assignments to assist maintain the group working. In between jobs and after work, you may additionally encounter different residents who’ve both embraced life in Paradise or are beginning to ask questions in their very own odd manner.
Talking with Hiroco Shiino, the lead artist on D-Topia, she explains the origins of the sport’s idea, which concerned intensive historic analysis and contemplation on what constitutes a Utopia.
“The idea for the sport centered across the concept of how humanity would evolve in the event that they moved past a life with smaller conflicts and obstacles, what would it not be like if characters lived on this utopian world the place all the things was set for them?” says Shiino. “These are the questions I had when arising with the idea, and one thing I needed to discover in a recreation.”
In my demo, I play by means of a number of the protagonist’s early days as a resident in Paradise. Beginning with getting the day going, which entails making ready breakfast and getting my outfit sorted, I get to expertise a day within the lifetime of a metropolis employee, permitting me to absorb the sights of Paradise. The artwork fashion of the sport has a really clear look with bursts of blue and inexperienced coloration protruding amongst large swathes of white and gray, which works splendidly for setting the tone.
Throughout working hours, the protagonist should repair glitches within the metropolis’s mainframe, which transports them right into a digital world the place they need to rearrange blocks and panels to unencumber assets. One of many puzzles I encounter is much like Match-3, the place you possibly can amplify the numbers by combining them with comparable blocks after which have to maneuver them to their corresponding tiles.
The sport’s deeper narrative unfolds additional, permitting your decisions to affect relationships and occasions.
Between working round Paradise and finishing these upkeep duties, the protagonist additionally has many alternatives to work together with different characters, together with AI assistants, all through the town. That is the place the sport’s deeper narrative unfolds additional, permitting your decisions to affect relationships and occasions.
In fact, the sport’s deal with AI assistants and their interactions with folks instantly jogs my memory of the present and distressing tempo at which expertise is evolving in our current instances. Nevertheless, the builders are clear that the AI characters and commentary aren’t hiding something nefarious precisely. Nonetheless, the sport’s bigger themes will focus extra on what humanity will develop into if we embrace a ‘utopia’ that is curated for us.
“Our model of AI in D-Topia is just not fairly Skynet,” jokes the lead programmer. “Within the setting of D-Topia, AI characters are current within the recreation as a supporting useful resource for the human characters, they usually’re primarily there to assist purge a lot of the damaging components of their lives. This, in fact, results in a bigger matter of company throughout the world, and what is going to humanity develop into if we dwell in a utopia that is a couple of curated existence.”
There is a sense of thriller to D-Topia that I discover compelling, but it surely’s additionally very charming and comfortable, which is so inviting. It felt like taking part in a extra laid-back model of the superb 1000xResist, which has actually piqued my curiosity in what’s to come back within the remaining launch – and I hope it’s going to absolutely decide to its existential questions on what it really means to dwell in a so-called utopia.
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