Mutazione is a 'mutant soap opera' due out next week

Indie studio Die Gute Fabrik are the developers of Sportsfriends, but their next game is something a little bit different. Mutazione is apparently a "mutant soap opera" where you play a 15-year-old girl named Kai who travels to an isolated community called Mutazione that is full of unusual characters—a cat-lady who plays guitar, an angry bug, a mischievous bean thing, some kind of radish person, and plenty more I can barely describe.

Kai has to look after her grandfather by taking over his garden, and the planting minigame seems to provide an admirable amount of freedom in placing your plants. We'll also get to "Make new friends, discover scenic hangouts, uncover long-hidden secrets, and help restore balance to the community by planting a series of magical musical gardens."

It all looks pretty chill but there are a couple of moments in the trailer hinting at a spooky undercurrent. Apparently as well as gardening and watching bands we'll have to "embark on a final spiritual journey to save everyone from the strange darkness at the heart of it all."

Mutazione is due out on Steam on September 19.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.