You Are Everyone’s Intrusive Thoughts In Citizen Sleeper Dev’s Upcoming Fungal RPG
Gareth Damian Martin, the lead developer of the acclaimed Citizen Sleeper series, has announced his next project: Signet City, a first-person fungalpunk RPG. The game represents a significant departure from Martin’s previous work, both tonally and mechanically.
In Signet City, players take on the role of a sentient spore navigating a city environment. Rather than controlling a traditional protagonist, the player becomes an unseen psychological presence that spreads through the city by infecting individuals. Once a person is infected, the spore becomes their “guiding psyche”—essentially their intrusive thoughts and inner voice.
The core gameplay involves influencing how infected individuals feel emotionally, which in turn shapes their decisions and actions. By controlling the emotional and psychological states of multiple hosts, players can orchestrate events and outcomes across the city. This design echoes the narrative structure of games like Disco Elysium and Esoteric Ebb, where players embody external perspectives attempting to influence and guide outcomes, though through a more direct form of psychological infiltration.
The “fungalpunk” aesthetic suggests a science fiction or speculative setting infused with biological and fungal themes, creating an unconventional framework where the world is experienced through multiple infected hosts rather than a single avatar. This structure allows for exploration of themes around consciousness, identity, control, and influence.
The announcement marks an ambitious creative shift for Martin following the success of Citizen Sleeper and its sequel, demonstrating his willingness to experiment with novel gameplay premises and narrative structures.