Phonopolis

Cardboard Dystopia
In the dystopian city of Phonopolis, life is orchestrated by omnipresent loudspeakers that dictate every aspect of people’s existence. Citizens, bound by the authoritarian Leader’s commands, work in unison to achieve his grand vision. Soon, the Absolute Tone—a tone so strong that it would strip every citizen of their humanity forever—will be heard…

By coincidence or perhaps by fate, young dustman Felix becomes the only person to consciously recognize the threat. Now, he must try to stop the Leader from indefinitely making every citizen a mindless servant. Loosely inspired by the works of Karel Čapek and George Orwell, the story of Phonopolis explores themes of social manipulation and individualism, but keeps the overall experience playful and light-hearted.

Play With The City
With Felix becoming immune to the commands, you’ll be able to take advantage of the loudspeakers and use them to solve puzzles involving other characters. Other times, you will interact with the cardboard environment in surprising, often unexpected ways—turn walls, shuffle floors, control various machinery or tear paper curtains. Each puzzle is carefully integrated into the world and presents a different challenge.

Old Meets New
Metaphorically referring to the utopian, totalitarian model of society, Phonopolis is a city built of actual cardboard. Capturing the nostalgic charm of classic stop-motion films, every piece of any building, every character, and every frame of any smoke or flame is hand-painted on a piece of paper, then digitized for use in the game’s 3D world.

The art style is strongly influenced by avant-garde artistic trends of the interwar period such as constructivism, futurism, and suprematism, and their societal impact as a tool of propaganda. The distinct visuals come to life with music from Tomáš Dvořák aka Floex, composer of soundtracks for Machinarium and Samorost 3.

Game Features

• Story-driven adventure game set in the dystopian city of Phonopolis
• Hand-painted 3D world made of cardboard
• Traditional 12 FPS animation reminiscent of classic stop-motion films
• Wide variety of puzzles integrated into the paper-built setting
• Music by Tomáš Dvořák aka Floex (Samorost 3, Machinarium)