Mutazione tells small human stories in a strange mutant world
A friend is a friend, no matter how many heads they have
The more things change, the more they stay the same, and the world of Mutazione has changed a lot since an alien meteor landed in the middle of a tropical holiday resort. Players pick up the story as Kai, a young woman living in the strange but low-key landscape that's grown in the hundred years since. She hangs out with her weird mutant pals, watching soap operas on TV, and might get into some high-stakes point and click adventuring in between the low-key slice-of-life stuff. The game has been in the works for yonks now, but Die Gute Fabrik are finally ready to show it to the world. See the debut trailer below.
Mutazione feels like a wild departure from Die Gute Fabrik's previous Sportsfriends (a compilation of weird multiplayer sports-like activities), but there's a little bit of that wild jazz spirit running through it. In-between the regular adventuring and conversing, you'll have the chance to do a bit of musical gardening. Players will be able to cultivate gardens, planting sound-generating plants according to the soil and environment type of the area, and even share plants and seeds with others online. It's such a singularly odd feature, but fits the 'low-key weirdness' vibe of the game.
It all reminds me a bit of a lovely little manga called Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale. It's only a short read, but it's a small, quiet story about a girl and her giant spider friend, the town they live in, the people they meet and the recipes they cook. I've always loved stories like that - reminders that as weird and wild as the world gets, people are simple creatures of habit that just want to settle down with friends and share a good meal. I'm hoping that Mutazione will deliver exactly that kind of uplifting sense that chaos is temporary, but good and kind people are forever.
So far there's no hard date or price for Mutazione, but Die Gute Fabrik are confident that it'll be finished this year, and rolling out on both Steam and Itch, although neither sites have store pages yet. You can see a little more on its official page here.
Disclosure: Hannah Nicklin is a writer and narrative designer at Die Gute Fabrik. She did some words for RPS a couple years back.