As massive fans of cozy games, the team here at Pocket Tactics was overjoyed when Animula Nook first burst onto the scene. This cozy life sim comes from LilliLandia Games, an offshoot of Tencent Games, the giant publisher known for games like Pokémon Unite, Honor of Kings, and Delta Force, but the subject matter is the furthest thing from giant.
Animula Nook shrinks players down to a "Lilliputian" size, referencing the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput in the classic story, Gulliver's Travels, putting the classic, slow-paced life-sim formula found in games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley into a new perspective. Household objects become crafting materials for furniture, flower pots become farming plots, and luckily, Animula Nook seems to leave out the very real fear of giant insects that Grounded instilled in many of us.
While we patiently await more information on the game's release date, some members of the LilliLandia Games dev and production team kindly answered our questions so that we can familiarize ourselves with the tiny world of Animula Nook and its Minies.
Pocket Tactics: Where did the original idea for Animula Nook come from?
LilliLandia Games: To put it simply, it all started on one of those late nights when we were working together. We realized something magical - we all shared this whimsical dream of shrinking, a fantasy that had been with us since childhood. We discovered that we loved the same animated stories, the same sense of wonder and escape, and in that instant, we felt a spark.
What if we could create a cozy, welcoming space where others who feel the same can gather and connect? That's how it all began - a shared moment, a dream, and a simple desire to bring people together.
You say the game is "Inspired by the charm of modern animated cartoons." What about them specifically inspired the game?
We aim to create a cartoon style that feels full of life. In terms of sculpting and playful expression, we've adopted a style similar to Pixar. When it comes to the realization of "textures," we didn't use realistic physical rendering. Instead, we extensively extracted the textures of everyday materials, such as clay and textiles, and applied a stylized treatment reminiscent of storybook illustrations. This approach preserves a certain cozy and warm atmosphere in the textures while avoiding an overly dreamy or unrealistic feel.
Grounded has taken the 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids'-style setting and turned it into a survival game in the past, so what inspired you to take it in a cozy, life-sim direction instead?
In this noisy and fragmented world, we want players to rediscover that childhood feeling of being curious about everything in life. The fantasy of shrinking down and having your own toy kingdom is something many people dreamt of as children. Viewing familiar life from a shrunken perspective aligns with our goal of offering a new viewpoint for players to discover the beauty in everyday life.
In Animula Nook, we focus more on how this "shrunken" perspective invites players to slow down and rediscover the small joys of life. From this viewpoint, ordinary objects take on new meaning - a blue bottle cap becomes a lake, an eraser can be piled into a hillside. Through this design, we aim to create a spiritual sanctuary centered on a "sense of companionship" and "emotional healing." The essence of a life simulation is to allow players to find their own rhythm. We don't pursue survival challenges, which is the fundamental difference between our game and survival titles.
What are Boobos? How do they differ from the humanoid Starmates?
In Minietopia, there are four most common races: The Starmate, Boobo, Insoul, and Weirca. The Starmates have a human-like appearance; the Boobos are a group of cute animal-like Minies; the Insoul are little machine Minies composed of clockwork, mechanics, and technology; the Weirca are a group of Minies where the eccentrics gather. Each race also has some unique subspecies. Together they form the diverse Minies. Different races of Minies focus more on distinctions in image and background style, bringing differentiation in "lifestyle characteristics."
The Starmate humanoid characters look like they'd fit right in with some blind box collections. What inspired their design and style?
The initial design inspiration for the Starmate came from the concept of "imaginary friends from childhood." They are the race among the Minies that most closely resembles humans. We felt that everyone had some "secret" friends in their childhood - they might live under the pillow, hide in the wardrobe, or perch in the corner of the garden. They were created purely by initial imagination, possessing unique personalities and secret abilities.
Naming them the "Starmate" race also stems from the idea that these imaginary friends who look like us are more like a group of good friends who came from the stars, born from wishes, with companionship at their core. The first subspecies under the Starmate race, the Fabrie, originated from imaginations surrounding soft items like cotton threads and cloth dolls found at home. From another perspective, this might be a manifestation of the "initial self." Imaginary friends played an important emotional support role in childhood; they were listeners, secret keepers, and adventure companions. The Starmate race was also the first race we designed. [They] carry childhood sweetness, healing, and imagination.
Which is your favorite character so far?
Dilly, wearing the Starside Bureau employee uniform. She was the prototype for our first NPC. Her inspiration came from the state of the team in the early stages of the project: wanting to do everything well but occasionally being a bit flustered. So we kept this clumsiness and earnestness in her character, and many team members see her as the "team mascot." Additionally, the Wupa is also a team favorite.
Can you share any insight into what the tools are that characters use in the promotional videos?
These tools are vessels for the "exploration-collection-interaction" gameplay from the shrunken perspective. The design is to utilize the interaction between tiny tools and the large environment to amplify the fun of the microscopic world. For example, the Lollipop might be used for tapping or as a lever, the Starside Slingshot for launching projectiles or creating sounds, and the collection bottle for gathering elements like sunlight or scents - they are not just functional items but also mediums for players to experience the "familiar yet fresh" feeling. Through these designs, we hope players can naturally integrate into the pace of life in the miniature world and find their own fun through autonomous exploration.
Given that Animula Nook is launching across multiple platforms, will it have cross-platform multiplayer? How about cross-progression?
We can definitely tell everyone that Animula Nook is a global, multi-platform healing life simulation game. However, as many platform partnerships are still in confidential negotiations, the specific forms aren't convenient to disclose at this time. Everyone can stay tuned for our follow-up information.
Is there a reason that the game is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, and not the first console?
We need to consider the balance between player experience and technical adaptation. Simultaneously, the choice of launch platforms involves information related to platform partnerships, which is not convenient to disclose. Once there is progress regarding future platform plans, we will promptly synchronize this information with players through official channels.
As Animula Nook is free to play, will there be an in-game store with microtransactions or any gacha elements?
We are discussing the overall monetization, and we have also seen player discussions and feedback. Prioritizing user experience, fairness, and immersion is the bottom line of the entire commercialization framework. We are fully confident in the project's long-term operation and development potential. However, as the specific plan is still under discussion, it is not convenient to provide a direct reply at this time.
Other free-to-play games get constant updates every few weeks - is this something we can expect with Animula Nook?
Yes. Our long-term content updates will continuously revolve around different "lifestyle themes." We hope to drive player goal-setting through narrative - different stories unfolding under different themes, with phased goals and rewards, also making it convenient for players to create based on different themes, thus having long-term life goals within Animula Nook.
Although LilliLandia Games has to remain silent on some key aspects of the game's development at this time, these insights into the world of Animula Nook have given us even more to look forward to, and we'll definitely be keeping an eye on the Dev Diaries on Steam.
Animula Nook is set to release on the Nintendo Switch 2, PC via Steam and Epic Games, macOS, and PlayStation in the future. You can pre-register via the game's official website and join the Discord server to get involved in early access testing.