'Fungalpunk' RPG Signet City isn't afraid to be weird and political

The upcoming game draws inspiration from horror manga, musicals and British history.

Jump Over the Age Signet City, the upcoming RPG from Citizen Sleeper developer Gareth Martin, will cast players as a parasite. Set in a brutalist, monochromatic gotham at the edge of collapse, this entity will take control of different human hosts, directing their actions and accomplishing its own objectives. When asked what cultural touchpoints inspired the self-described "fungalpunk" RPG, Martin points to their own British upbringing, and the desire to "create something that would draw on that identity and history" — even if some of it might go over the heads an American audience.

Before they began designing video games, they worked at a theater design company doing pre-visualization work. One production involved Sting's The Last Ship — a musical about the shipbuilding crisis in Newcastle in the 1980s. "There are these amazing pictures of Newcastle in the '80s of these huge ships towering over little terraced houses," they recall. "I remember thinking at the time that was science fiction happening in the past. There's something really interesting in that moment in history where industrialization collapsed. It's obviously cast a very long shadow over the UK."