Manga publisher Viz Media teamed up with developers Rose City Games to create their first original game — an independent game about a girl trapped in a strange and surreal parallel world.
Titled "The World Next Door," the game was announced on Feb. 6 on Rose City Game's official website.
The announcement reads:
"We've been really excited to talk about this for a while, and we're finally ready to go public! Rose City Games is making 3 original titles and launching a new indie game publishing platform with VIZ Media."
The folks behind Rose City Games went on to talk about how they had been long-time fans of Manga Publisher Viz Media's works. They shared that it was during an internal game jam that they came up with the concept and the characters for their upcoming game. They then gathered a team to help them work on the game and make it come to fruition.
Not much else was included in the announcement, but Rose City Games added a link to its Twitter account, along with a note that says they would be leaving updates for curious fans.
A press release regarding "The World Next Door" was also released.
The press release provided information regarding the partnership between Viz Media and Rose City Games, with the Rose City representatives saying they are excited to work with Viz Media and that they believe their long-time anime-loving followers would love their upcoming game.
"The World Next Door" has a very anime-like aesthetic — involving magic, strange creatures and a surreal world that the protagonist will have to venture into.
While not much has been said about the game's plot, Polygon, stated that it appeared to be influenced by other games in the narrative adventure genre, most especially "Night in the Woods" and "Oxenfree."
Rose City Games also released a piece of artwork for "The World Next Door." The piece featured the protagonist alongside two strange creatures from the surreal world.
More information will be given as the game goes through its development phase.
