Chinese developer MiHoYo (HoYoverse) has officially unveiled a new game, its first life sim adventure. It’s called Petit Planet, and it’s the second new announcement in a month, following on from the studio’s Pokemon-like, Honkai: Nexus Anima.
Much like Nexus Anima, Petit Planet is very much taking cues from established games to help the developer enter a new genre, this time being the cozy life sim genre of games like Animal Crossing, and The Sims.
MiHoYo describes Petit Planet as a “cosmic life simulation”, but it very much has Animal Crossing vibes. The announcement press release even teases how players will get to spend their time with “unique” neighbours.
It has a clever setup, where players are tasked with nurturing and growing their own planet before they can connect it with other planets to form a galaxy. There’s a big element of creativity and sharing in this, too, which we get a hint of in the trailer.
What you’ll actually be doing on your own planet is very much in-line with what you expect. There’s fishing, mining, cooking, planting, crafting and so on. You can pick outfits for your characters to wear, design homes, arrange spaces and do other Sims-like things.
The big focus, however, is on the different connections you can make with your companions and their planets, adding an element of relationship building to the mix. In the trailer, we also get to see players leaving their own islets and venturing into unknown areas to discover new recipes and find rare creatures.
Galactic Bazaar is the game’s hub area, where everyone gets together to hang out after a long day’s work and form connections with other players.
Petit Planet is in development for PC and mobile – though specifics weren’t announced. If you’re interested, you can sign up to be among the first to play the aptly-named Closed Beta Coziness Test, which you can do on the official website.