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This upcoming game is a chill, Animal Crossing-style MMO

Welcome to Palia!

Cass Marshall is a news writer focusing on gaming and culture coverage, taking a particular interest in the human stories of the wild world of online games.

Palia has a very appealing elevator pitch: Developer Singularity 6 promises a game like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, but with the scope and world of a Breath of the Wild-style open-world game. This community-based MMO looks astoundingly chill. While there is some combat, none of it is mandatory. Instead, the bulk of the action is built around home decoration, farming, fashion, and making friends. You can even smooch a new beau!

Singularity 6 is made up of veterans from Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment, and Zynga. The studio’s debut title is centered around being cozy with friends. There will be a big plot for players to explore — we take the role of humans, who disappeared from the world thousands of years ago. Now that we’re back, we get to build our nice little houses and make friends with all the other creatures in the world, some of whom are quite unusual. Players can unlock friendships and romance arcs with these characters over time.

It’s possible to play Palia solo, and avoid other players. However, the game is also built to work better with a few friends around. If you want to cook up some stew, your buddy can join you in chopping up veggies, stewing meat, and adding ingredients, and the food is better as a result. You can even give your friends the ability to redecorate your house and add to your farm, if you trust them enough with the responsibility.

Palia will enter a pre-alpha testing phase soon, and interested players can sign up on the game’s official site. The pre-alpha will be available on Windows PC; there’s no word yet on whether Palia will launch on other platforms.

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