We’re excited to introduce Phonopolis - a new hand-crafted adventure set in a dystopian city made of cardboard where everybody obeys the oppressive Leader’s orders - except for one young man… We hope you enjoyed the first teaser trailer, but in case you missed it, you can watch it below.
It’s still going to take us a generous amount of time to finish the game - please don’t expect it to come out within the next 12 months - but we’re so glad to finally be able to share the first bits and pieces with you. And, please, continue reading below if you want to learn something more about the game's story, inspirations, or creative process! There are a few long-time conventions within Amanita that Phonopolis is set to break...
Phonopolis, in contrast to the majority of our previous titles, tackles more relatable, real-world themes and topics, focusing on manipulation and individualism but still keeping the overall experience playful and light-hearted. Players will take on the role of Felix, a thoughtful young man who, along with his fellow citizens, faces the imminent threat of falling under the control of the dystopian city’s authoritarian Leader once and for all, effectively losing their humanity. Accidentally becoming the only person who consciously recognizes the threat, young Felix must try to stop the Leader from playing the Absolute tone.
The story-driven adventure, which employs both puzzle and exploration elements, is being developed by a new debuting team within our studio, led by a trio of artists, designers, and animators (and former college classmates) Petr Filipovič, Eva Marková, and Oto Dostál. “The Leader, now a factual dictator of the city of Phonopolis, might have had good intentions in the past. Aiming to create a perfectly happy society, he invented a system of loudspeakers and subliminal orders that were meant to drive the people to perfection,” describes Petr Filipovič, the game director. “But ultimately, the people have turned into mindless servants, mere cogs in an artificially shaped society – machinery.”
Both ideologically and visually, Phonopolis is strongly influenced by avant-garde artistic trends of the interwar period such as constructivism, futurism, or suprematism, and their societal impact as a tool of propaganda. „The rejection of tradition and celebration of new revolutionary ways of thinking were both typical signs of interwar artistic movements. The admiration for progress plus the belief in setting a new and better social environment were key inspirations for Phonopolis,“ explains Eva Marková, the concept artist. “We are attempting to utilize avant-garde art in some more playful, enjoyable ways, not unlike children’s toys and paper models. One of our goals is to cheer the player with a bit of honest childlike joy,” Eva adds.
Phonopolis also marks our first entry into the realm of 3D graphics. Metaphorically referring to the utopian, totalitarian model of society, Phonopolis is a city built of real corrugated fiberboard: “Even though the game is being developed within a 3D engine, we’re still hand-crafting as many assets as we can. All textures are painted on cardboard, cut-out, digitized, and placed on their respective 3D model,” says Oto Dostál, technical artist on the project. “We would love for our game to feel less like a piece of software and more like a hand-crafted little universe that hopefully retains some of the warmth of human touch.”
The music for Phonopolis is being written and produced by our long-term collaborator Tomáš Dvořák aka Floex (Machinarium, Samorost, Pilgrims) with sound effects provided by audio engineer and foley artist Matouš Godík (Samorost 3, Creaks). Until now, our games included no comprehensible dialogue. That changes with Phonopolis, as its story will be told in a narrative voice!
That will be it for now, but it won't take too long until we're back with more!