I am often heard complaining that similar genres seem to surge in popularity all at once. It certainly happened with cozy farming simulators and is currently happening with extraction shooters. After accepting my Life Below appointment at gamescom 2025, I was bombarded with city builders, too. It seems that as soon as I am looking for something, it pops up consistently. With that said, I am always happy to see a studio do something different with an oversaturated genre, and developer Megapop is doing just that with Life Below.
I was able to sit down with Game Director Lise Hagen Lie and have her walk me through the game in a quick 30-minute demo that showed me various stages of the game from beginning to end, after players are more established. Though it doesn’t look like your typical city builder, Life Below is just that, only for marine life. You’re not just building typical housing and commercial buildings. Instead, you’re building an entire ecosystem, the absolute base... Read more