When you think of Riot, Blizzard, and Epic Games, you probably think of fast-paced, competitive multiplayer games like Overwatch 2 and Valorant, but that’s about to change. A group of former Blizzard, Sony, Epic, Zynga, and Riot developers teamed up to form new studio Singularity 6, and their debut game is Palia, a cozy online life-sim that’s attracting quite a bit of interest.
Singularity 6 bills Palia as a magical vacation and a cooperative community builder. You play as a human – formerly a legendary species, newly returned to Palia’s fantasy world – who arrives in a secluded part of the world and decides to set up house.
Palia has all the usual things you’d expect in a life-sim, from farming to home design and detailed wardrobes, but the difference is that you don’t have to do it on your own. It’s a community building game with the spirit of Sky: Children of the Light as much as it is a life-sim, and Singularity 6 said that while you can play the free MMO solo, it’s “better together.”
The usual MMO stats are replaced with practical and social abilities, such as fishing and farming. You can make friends with the locals, team up to host an impromptu fishing contest, or just explore the wilds and come back in time for a cup of tea by the fire.
It’s an unusual premise for an online game, and it’s resonating with fans. The game has over 600,000 followers, which Singularity 6 was keen to point out is more than double the number of followers that the most wishlisted Steam games have. During the last pre-alpha playtest, participating players logged a combined total of 167,000 hours.
Palia doesn’t have a release date just yet, but Singularity 6 will be hosting more playtests in the coming months. You can sign up on the Palia website if you’re interested.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
