Gareth Damian Martin, creator of indie darlings In Other Waters and Citizen Sleeper, announces Signet City, a first-person fungalpunk RPG that positions players as a brain fungus harvesting emotions from their human host.
The concept draws from Monsters, Inc.'s emotional energy extraction premise but filters it through a distinctly British lens. Martin grounds the game in northern England's history and culture, borrowing aesthetic cues from Dishonored's whalepunk technology and mechanical systems from The Veil, a cyberpunk tabletop RPG.
Signet City treats the host-parasite relationship as the core gameplay loop. Players feed on emotions to grow stronger, creating a symbiotic dynamic that mirrors resource management systems found in traditional RPGs. The fungal perspective offers a rare narrative angle. Most games let players control humans investigating threats. Signet City inverts this, making players the alien presence inhabiting a body.
Martin's track record suggests strong writing and world-building. Citizen Sleeper earned critical praise for its narrative depth and thematic exploration of labor and identity in dystopian futures. In Other Waters paired minimalist visuals with intricate ecological storytelling. Both established Martin as a designer interested in player agency through unconventional perspectives.
The fungalpunk setting remains largely unexplored territory in gaming. Biomancy and mycology appear in fantasy titles, but few RPGs center fungal intelligence as a playable character. Combining this with whalepunk aesthetics and British cultural touchstones creates visual and thematic territory distinct from cyberpunk saturation.
The Veil system integration suggests Signet City will feature character progression tied to host manipulation and emotional cultivation rather than traditional leveling. This aligns with Martin's previous work, where mechanics serve narrative purpose rather than serve as disconnected systems.
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