Citizen Sleeper creator Gareth Damian Martin’s new game is something quite different: a first-person “fungalpunk” narrative role-playing game inspired by post-punk Britain, in which you play as a literal parasite, infecting and navigating the lives of people in Signet City.
Indeed, Signet City is the name of the game. It’s first-person – a first for Damian Martin – and stylistically a mash of halftone monochrome artwork, dirty industrial buildings, scruffy underground music culture and grotesque biological horror. Everything seems overtaken by an apocalyptic fungal spread.
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As a parasite, you’ll have the ability to “go behind the eyes of your hosts and change their fate, one pivotal day at a time”, a press release explains, “shaping conversations, influencing inhabitants, and navigating the interconnected systems transforming the world around them”. Furthermore, “rampant technologies are taking root, radical political movements are spreading through the streets, underground music scenes pulse through damp basements and abandoned industrial spaces. Beneath it all, fungal systems are quietly connecting everything together.”
Mechanically Signet City is described as having “first-person storytelling with richly authored narrative RPG design”. There’s no mention of a dice-based system underpinning it, suggesting it may be a fairly drastic departure from the dice-based sci-fi series Citizen Sleeper. And the press release backs this up, calling Signet City “a major evolution” for Damian Martin – also known by their studio name Jump Over the Age.
“The move into first-person perspective, fungalpunk worldbuilding, and a more socially and politically volatile setting creates a distinctly different experience while retaining the deeply human storytelling Gareth Damian Martin’s work has become known for,” the press release adds.
A growth of screenshots for Signet City. It’s a very sparse-looking, artfully constructed game.
2022’s Citizen Sleeper and 2025’s Citizen Sleeper 2 propelled Damian Martin to wide acclaim. They are games about exploring and surviving life on space stations as a Sleeper, an android of sorts distantly controlled by a human housed elsewhere. It’s a framework that allows for deep and heartfelt explorations of belonging, identity, and found family. They’re gentle and heartwarming games to play.
There’s no release date for Signet City yet, and PC (Steam) is the only platform it’s noted for. I’m speaking to Damian Martin next week, though, so I’ll endeavour to find out more – and if there’s something you want to know, let me know in the comments below.
