Floatopia Is An Upcoming Life Sim With More Animal Crossing Than Stardew Valley In Its DNA
You’re on floating island time now.
Amid a wave of shooters and action games at Gamescom Opening Night Live, one trailer in particular stood out for being decidedly different. Just before the much-hyped Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, an almost sickeningly cute trailer for a game called Floatopia appeared. It certainly isn’t the only cozy-looking game to appear onstage, but its colorful aesthetic still made it stand out — especially given its resemblance to maybe the ultimate cozy game, Nintendo’s Animal Crossing.
An onscreen message at the start of the trailer reads, “Start a new life above the clouds.” That’s a more literal description of Floatopia than it might seem, as it takes place entirely on a set of islands floating in the clouds. Its island setting isn’t the only thing it has in common with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, either. The game’s trailer shows off the ability to terraform your island, go fishing, and visit friends, all with art that has more than a little in common with Animal Crossing’s iconic style. A shot of multiple characters having a picnic together suggests a similar low-key social style as Nintendo’s iconic life sim.
Floatopia debuted with a cutesy trailer at Gamescom.
We’ve only seen a brief glimpse of Floatopia so far, so it’s too early to say how closely it will follow in Animal Crossing’s footsteps, but it does seem more in line with its unstructured style. That’s exactly what makes it stand out in a sea of similar games.
Life sims are everywhere these days, but most are based on the Stardew Valley formula, which prioritizes gathering resources to upgrade your farm and make money. The Stardew Valley style also tends to involve some light combat, and there’s generally more structure to how you’re meant to spend your days. By comparison, Animal Crossing is more laidback, focusing more on interacting with your neighbors and customizing your space than building up your agricultural empire.
Given how successful the Animal Crossing series is, it’s surprising that there are few competitors coming for its oh-so-chill throne. That could simply be because Animal Crossing feels too dominant to even take on, or because the relatively more complex Stardew Valley gives developers more mechanics to sink their teeth into. Just the fact that it resembles Animal Crossing so closely feels like a bold move on Floatopia’s part, however it turns out.
Floatopia is an Animal Crossing-inspired life sim with a surprisingly dark backstory.
Floatopia isn’t just a pastiche of Animal Crossing, though. A PlayStation blog post that appeared after its reveal lays out the game’s premise, and it’s a doozy.
“Our story is set in a fantastical world filled with superpowers that can be acquired through just a phone call,” developer Netease says. “Unfortunately as the protagonist, you find that all the best superpowers in the world have already been taken, leaving you with — well, frankly, the much less impressive ones. This situation has led you into a dead end job, and you feel marginalized and underappreciated. But, by chance, you come across a floating island and there, you join others with similarly ‘useless’ superpowers.”
The high-concept story might be a bit overstuffed, but at least it’s unique. An extended trailer released by PlayStation shows a darker side to the game, beginning with an apocalyptic storm that convinces a burned-out but still adorable character to quit her job. It's questionable whether your superpowers are as useless as they’re made out to be, too. As shown in the Gamescom trailer, some superpowers in the game include the ability to change the weather or instantly water crops.
Floatopia could fill the Animal Crossing: New Horizons-shaped hole in your game library.
Another change from Animal Crossing is that your idyllic island paradise is only one of several environments in Floatopia. The trailer shows characters taking an airship to an island awash in purple plants with sparkling crystals jutting from the ground, and Netease says it plans to “regularly update the game with new realms” based on “different regional cultures and natural landscapes.” Netease specifically calls out the relationships with your neighbors as a core part of Floatopia, suggesting that it is indeed more Animal Crossing than Stardew Valley.
Floatopia so far only has a broad 2025 release window, and we’ll presumably learn more about how closely it hews to Animal Crossing in the leadup to release. Interested players can sign up for a playtest now on its website to be among the first to figure out just what the heck it’s going for. We won’t see how Floatopia comes together for a while, but modeling itself after the style of the definitive cozy life sim is an admirably brave undertaking that’s worth keeping an eye on.
