Singularity 6, a studio made up in part by former developers of Blizzard and Riot, has announced its debut game Palia. Much like what Blizzard and Riot are known for, Palia will bring players together in a massively multiplayer online RPG experience in what it calls a community simulator in an immersive fantasy world.
While 2020 unexpectedly saw most people staying indoors due to shelter-in-place orders, games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons provided an online social experience, bringing players together in a different way. The founders of Singularity 6 were inspired by this and created the development studio to bring people together through games, co-founder Aidan Karabaich says in a press release. Just like how players shaped the Animal Crossing experience throughout 2020 beyond what Nintendo expected, Singularity 6 expects players to shape Palia and make it their second home.
So rather than focus on classic MMORPG elements like combat and dungeon crawling, Palia will be more of a community simulator that relies on the cozy aspects of games and collaboration with other players to explore and progress in the world. Palia will feature an intimate world with a cast of romanceable NPCs, a guild system that Singularity 6 refers to as "neighborhoods," and some farming sim elements inspired by Stardew Valley. So while combat will appear in Palia's many quests, it's second to the exploration drawn from Breath of the Wild and relaxing gameplay from lifestyle sims like Animal Crossing.
Players will play as humans, a legendary race, in Palia. They mysteriously disappeared thousands of years ago despite their mastery of magic. After awakening as a human, players must uncover the secrets of the past and finding an explanation for the mysterious vanishing in Palia's main story. Alongside other players, who can work with one another to complete the story or go at it alone, Palia's campaign will feature an ongoing and evolving story, not unlike Genshin Impact's.
Filling in the gaps between story and missions, Palia will also encompass gameplay elements inspired by Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Stardew Valley as well, such as fishing and mining. But players will never be bogged down by any single gameplay element that they don't want to participate in, such as combat, for example. Instead, players can band together to complete tasks however they'd like.
While Singularity 6 hasn't announced a release window for its upcoming game, players can participate in Palia's pre-alpha on PC by signing up on its official website starting today. The pre-alpha will begin later this summer.
Palia is currently in development.