PHONOPOLIS
Developer/publisher Amanita Design Format PC, consoles TBA Release TBA
We sometimes wonder if Amanita Design announces games as an incentive to finish them off. Famously meticulous in its craft, the Czech studio has assembled possibly its most ambitious project to date in Phonopolis: a world physically built from corrugated fibreboard that has been animated to produce a 12fps stopmotion effect. Moreover, it’s the developer’s first overtly political game – although Amanita says it’s aiming to keep the tone “playful and light-hearted”. The titular city is in danger, with an authoritarian leader planning some sort of mass mind-control experiment, of which the populace is unaware. Apart, that is, from Felix, who must save Phonopolis via a series of puzzles that are tense, comedic and surreal by turns. Amanita hasn’t announced a release date; let’s hope that by the time it arrives its dystopian satire doesn’t hit too close to home.