Dealing with the passing of loved ones is a universal experience that every single human being has to go through even if we try to avoid that fact when we’re younger. As the video game industry gets older, as well as the people who make them, it feels like more games are trying to confront the idea of death, and how we can use an interactive medium to explore it. Ambrosia Sky is a game about death, but probably not in the way you’re thinking. While there are enemies, eliminating them isn’t your objective — instead your focus is laying the souls of the recently deceased to rest. Ambrosia Sky is a contemplative experience that’s oddly soothing, ruminating on the nature of life and connection — all while feeling like a bizarre fusion of PowerWash Simulator and Metroid Prime. It already looks like it could be something truly special.
Ambrosia Sky is the first game from a new studio called Soft Rains, made up of veterans who worked on the likes of Skyrim, Fallout 3/4, A Mortician’s Tale, Creature in the Well, and Left 4 Dead. Considering such pedigree, it’s easy to draw the line to how that expertise is being put to use in a first-person exploration game.
In Ambrosia Sky, you play as Dalia, a deep-space disaster specialist who’s deployed to the rings of Saturn in the wake of a deadly fungal contamination. As it happens, that’s also Dalia’s childhood home, and her job there is twofold: to clean up the fungus and lay the souls of Saturn’s inhabitants to rest as she investigates what caused it.
What immediately struck me about Ambrosia Sky was its meditative quality, how it's an evocative first-person experience that actually de-emphasizes shooting, even though it's there. Of course, the game’s whole setup, cleaning up after a mass casualty event, inevitably draws comparisons to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I mentioned that to the development team.
“Games haven’t really plumbed the depths of how we handle death, more than sort of a consequence of our actions.”
“You aren’t the first person to touch on this, and there’s not an overt pandemic story here. But I think it’s unavoidable that sort of collective trauma informed us as storytellers,” Soft Rains studio head Joel Burgess tells Inverse, “We’ve seen other games handle death in different ways, anything from Spiritfarer to Death Stranding. It shows the range to explore this topic more deeply, but I think it also shows that games haven’t really plumbed the depths of how we handle death, more than sort of a consequence of our actions.”
That idea of exploration is central to Ambrosia Sky, both in a tangible, immediate sense and a thematic one. As you explore the colonies of Saturn, Dalia has to clean up a sentient fungus that grows and changes constantly. To that end, Soft Rains has created an incredibly unique gameplay experience that’s one part job simulator and one part immersive sim. v
Chunky blocks of purple fungus sprout all over the areas you explore, and your main tool for getting rid of them is a spray gun with different nozzle attachments. As you spray the fungus, it sets off a chain reaction, destroying everything connected, but you can speed up the process with your spray or pinpoint specific parts. The catch is that the fungus also grows valuable seeds that work as an upgrade resource, but they explode if they’re hit or fall too far. So a lot of the puzzle nature of the game comes from smartly using your spray to maximize the seeds you get, piecing together how you eliminate the fungus in the most efficient way.
Other elements are layered in to add complexity, like a fungus that feeds on electricity and shuts down computer consoles, doors, and more by doing so. You can eliminate the fungus to power these back up, but also use a special electric spray to carry its current through the environment, wherever you need power. Little bug-like enemies also find solace in the newly fungus-filled environments, attacking you as you invade their territory.
The idea of a sentient fungus is terrifying in its own way, adding a small layer of surreal horror to the experience — especially as you’re exploring lived-in places filled with the corpses of human life.
“When we first started working on the game, it’s funny and almost hard to put a finger on, but a lot of the members of the team were really interested in mushroom foraging. We were researching contemporary science fiction themes, like alternate food sources off Earth,” Burgess says, “We came across space agencies that discovered a fungus can grow in a vacuum. So we hit on the idea of a sustainable food source, because that’s an unsolved problem for space travel. What would that mean for society? So the idea of mushrooms and food sources really wormed its way in from the beginning.”
Soft Rains has done a good job of truly making this fungus feel alive; it pulsates with an almost rhythmic beat, creeping along every avenue and crack it can find. It’s a testament to the strong, almost painterly art style of the game, and it was apparently quite the task to make everything look right — with Soft Rains’ visual team looking to comic books and animation for references on creating 2D-3D hybrid styles.
“We embarked on a complicated visual project, and it’s gonna be a maximalist game no matter how we slice it, visually. We’ve got places we want to take you across the cluster, and then we’re gonna cover our levels in a destructible environment,” art director Adam Volker says, “So we had to pick a style that allowed for a lot of visual iconography, like quick reads and differences between these types of fungus. But also something that felt super natural.”
While the fungus in Ambrosia Sky feels intentionally oppressive, as you clean up more of it, you do get to see hints of the thriving civilization that used to be here. In our demo, we had to travel to the house of someone who was something of a father figure to Dalia when she was young. As we piece through the environment, we could read emails and find logs of his life, with Dalia getting to see how his life changed after she left.
That’s where the immersive sim layer comes into play, in how you unpack the story that led to this moment, and the legacy these people have left.
“One of the things about immersive sims is you often get these interesting, unconventional character backgrounds and fantasies. If you think of Half-Life, he’s a scientist, right? He’ll pick up a shotgun and stuff, but the Gravity Gun is the most interesting thing in that game,” Burgess says, “In a way, it doesn’t feel like a new idea, but we think it’s one with a lot of fertile ground to explore. We love those games — deep immersion, world-building, and a deep sense of place, and the ability to ask questions at the simulation and get an answer. It’s an evergreen place to be, and then we find a way to put our own spin on it.”
Ambrosia Sky is one of those games that has pretty clear inspirations, but manages to use those to create something that feels wholly distinct. It certainly has elements of games like Half-Life or PowerWash, but the way it combines those elements is undoubtedly fascinating and fresh-feeling.. But the harmony between its meditative cleaning and reflection on life is the game’s real heart. The game is still clearly early on, but Soft Rains has something really special here, and if the execution can land, Ambrosia Sky might end up being one of the most poignant games in a long time.
“In order for our small team to punch above its weight, I think it’s really important everyone on the team has a chance to really push their fingers into the game, to see their fingerprints on what we’re building,” Burgess says, “I think everyone is doing that to some extent, and it’s inevitable that, with the nature of the subject matter, you’re going to see that manifest in ways that, honestly, we’ve not even realized.”
