Signet City: A New Fungalpunk RPG from the Creator of Citizen Sleeper

Jump Over the Age, the development studio led by Gareth Damian Martin, has officially unveiled its next project: Signet City. The game is a first-person “fungalpunk” RPG where players take on the role of a parasitic mushroom. Set in a sprawling urban environment inspired by post-punk Britain, the title marks a thematic shift from the studio’s previous work, Citizen Sleeper, by placing players in the perspective of an invasive biological entity rather than a human inhabitant.

What is the premise of Signet City?

In Signet City, you play as a sentient, parasitic brain mushroom. According to initial details shared during the PC Gaming Show, the gameplay revolves around your ability to infect the lives of the city’s human inhabitants. By taking over hosts, you influence their decisions and navigate the social and physical structures of a city defined by its post-punk aesthetic. The core loop involves managing your infection while interacting with the dense, atmospheric urban landscape that serves as the game’s primary setting.

How does Signet City compare to Citizen Sleeper?

While both titles share the creative vision of Gareth Damian Martin, they occupy different mechanical and narrative spaces. Citizen Sleeper focused on tabletop-inspired dice mechanics and the survival of a digitized human consciousness on a space station. In contrast, Signet City moves into a first-person perspective, emphasizing a “fungalpunk” aesthetic. While Citizen Sleeper explored themes of labor and identity through human-scale interactions, Signet City shifts the focus to the biological disruption caused by a fungal parasite attempting to exert control over a crumbling, industrial society.

Why the “Fungalpunk” label?

The term “fungalpunk” highlights the game’s unique visual and narrative identity. The genre emphasizes the intersection of biological growth and decaying urban environments. The city itself is modeled after the architecture and mood of post-punk Britain—a setting characterized by brutalist structures, social tension, and a gritty, atmospheric tone. By inhabiting a mushroom, players engage with this environment not as a tourist, but as a disruptive force of nature that thrives on the decay inherent in the city’s infrastructure.

What to expect from the gameplay

As a parasitic entity, your primary objective is to spread and survive within the city’s population. The game tasks players with making choices that dictate how the infection progresses and how the human hosts react to your presence. Because the game is presented in the first person, the experience of moving through the city—and through the minds of its citizens—is intended to be more intimate and disorienting than the top-down or menu-heavy interfaces seen in many traditional RPGs. The project aims to blend the narrative depth expected from Jump Over the Age with a more visceral, explorative approach to world-building.

Key Takeaways

• Developer: Developed by Jump Over the Age, the studio behind Citizen Sleeper.
• Perspective: A first-person RPG where the player controls a parasitic brain mushroom.
• Setting: A city inspired by the architecture and atmosphere of post-punk Britain.
• Core Mechanic: Infecting and manipulating human hosts to navigate the urban environment.

As development continues, Signet City stands out for its departure from standard RPG tropes, opting instead for a biological, perspective-shifting narrative. By focusing on the interplay between a parasitic organism and a decaying industrial society, Jump Over the Age is positioning the game as a distinct exploration of environmental and social decay. Further details regarding release windows and platform availability are expected to follow as the project moves through its production cycle.