{"id":5594,"date":"2026-07-14T05:06:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=5594"},"modified":"2026-07-14T05:06:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:06:46","slug":"signet-city-preview-80s-inspired-sci-fi-from-the-maker-of-citizen-sleeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=5594","title":{"rendered":"Signet City preview &#8211; 80s-inspired sci-fi from the maker of Citizen Sleeper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"363\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_305106014-1463.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-29127767\" alt=\"Signet City screenshot of London street\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Signet City \u2013 that definitely looks like London (Fellow Traveller)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>British <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/tag\/indie-games\/\" data-track=\"inline-tag-auto-link_article\">indie games<\/a> developer Gareth Damian Martin has returned with a new sci-fi game that mixes 80s social realism and sci-fi, with a very distinctive first person viewpoint.<\/p>\n<p>Gareth Damian Martin is one of the rising stars of the UK games development establishment \u2013 although establishment is more or less the opposite of how you would describe them. Fiercely intellectual, with an academic and artistic background that encompasses architecture, illustration, journalism, and photography, they burst onto the scene with the Zen-like <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2020\/04\/07\/waters-nintendo-switch-review-soothing-terrors-deep-12522270\/\">In Other Waters<\/a> in 2020 and consolidated that initial promise with 2022\u2019s <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2022\/05\/03\/citizen-sleeper-review-space-oddity-16579853\/\">Citizen Sleeper<\/a> and 2025\u2019s <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/01\/30\/citizen-sleeper-2-starward-vector-review-station-station-22465576\/\">Citizen Sleeper 2<\/a>, two unforgettable tabletop influenced sci-fi narratives.<\/p>\n<p>Now Martin has unveiled their fourth game, Signet City \u2013 via a trailer released far in advance of its mooted 2027 release date. Signet City will be a radical departure from Martin\u2019s previous games, not least by adopting a first person perspective: \u2018I wanted to introduce the world, and get people used to the idea of the art style and the feel of it being quite different to Citizen Sleeper.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018In Signet City, you play as a parasite, and it felt natural that it should be a game where you see the world through the eyes of your hosts, very literally. And it was exciting to get to do level-design and spaces, and especially urban environments, which are a big fascination of mine.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Along with Signet City\u2019s bold new look and monochrome art style, its gameplay should also be thoroughly distinctive. Martin explains how it will play: \u2018You start off as a parasite, and you wake up in the mind of a character called Sid, who is herself waking up in the river of this city. You come to understand what you are, why it is that you\u2019re in the mind of this person who doesn\u2019t know that you\u2019re there. And you start to understand what your capabilities are, and what the world is, through Sid, as she lives in the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The idea of jumping around between characters is a big part of the story. So it is narrative-led, but there\u2019s a mechanical aspect to that, which is that your character\u2019s skills and your resources are all based on their emotions. So how you push them in the story, and what experiences they go through, and which choices you make on their behalf, or what you encourage them towards, all that affects the skills you have access to, and also affects how you grow as a parasite \u2013 the resources you have to grow from.\u2019<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n\t\t\t\tExpert, exclusive gaming analysis\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<p>Sign up to the <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/newsletters\/game-central\/\"><strong>GameCentral newsletter<\/strong><\/a> for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Martin cites the example of getting a character you possess involved in a fight in a pub, so that they get angry and then possess the venom to kick down a door which opens up a new area. They add: \u2018I really want to make games where the narrative element and mechanical elements are not really separable from each other. So in this case, a lot of the decisions you make in the game are simultaneously narrative and mechanical.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>As far as the gameplay mechanics are concerned, Martin says there will still be elements that Citizen Sleeper fans find familiar: \u2018The key thing is that you have these explorable spaces with each host. So each time you drop into the mind of a host, what comes with them is their part of the city. You have a limited amount of actions a day and it has a day process. So you wake up as the character and you decide what it is you\u2019re going to do with that day to get you closer to what your objectives are.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SIGNET CITY - Reveal Trailer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mO4uKabqRQo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u2018There\u2019s a dice-based tabletop element to it, governing actions you can find in the world \u2013 like kicking down a door or climbing a wall or convincing somebody of something \u2013 and those are affected by the emotions of the host. So there\u2019s a kind of lock-and-key element, but also a skill-based system that\u2019s all about you adjusting modifiers, basically, by making narrative decisions.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>As far as Signet City\u2019s themes are concerned, Martin\u2019s long-existing preoccupations with architecture and black and white photography are front and centre, and even though the game exists in the realm of sci-fi, it should be Martin\u2019s most obviously British game yet: \u2018I\u2019m always interested in cities as these big mega-interconnected ecologies, and I think that\u2019s a big theme. I\u2019m trying to dig into this idea of a city as a living structure \u2013 not just a city as a space that contains people, but also contains ecology, and different animals, and different layers of systems that all overlap with each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But then, also, I really wanted to make something that I felt drew more on British history and culture, and what I was born into, and the 80s cast a long shadow over the contemporary day. You\u2019ve got fascinating events like the Winter of Discontent. I\u2019ve got a huge stack of Caf\u00e9 Royal books. It\u2019s amazing having that resource when you\u2019re building a city and you\u2019re trying to capture the spirit of that time.\u2019<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"363\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_305106011-bd4f.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-29127770\" alt=\"Signet City screenshot of first person view\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>it\u2019s not clear what\u2019s going on here (Fellow Traveller)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Martin reveals that they have been obsessed with black and white photography since their teenage years, so that formed a natural basis for the art style: \u2018I had this very particular vision of wanting to have hand-drawn characters that are in my natural art-style. I do a lot of ink drawing and working with quite a rough approach to illustration. But then also to balance that with this kind of photographic environment. One of the big things I love is the way in which in photography \u2013 especially black and white photography \u2013 you get imaginary detail that\u2019s created from grain. So in the in-game visuals, we have quite a complex post-processing effect.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The game is very much inspired by 80s social photography; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tish_Murtha\">Tish Murtha<\/a> had a big influence on it \u2013 I absolutely love her photographs. And I think there\u2019s a humanity. I\u2019ve always loved, ever since I very first started taking black and white photos, the way that it seems to cut through and get at something that is underneath or behind things. It removes distractions and really focuses on producing things: sometimes it\u2019s atmosphere, sometimes it\u2019s literal, physical architectural form, and sometimes it\u2019s emotion.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Martin admits that taking on a first-person view game for the first time as a solo developer (although they drafted in an environment artist called Tom Kitchin to help) was initially daunting, but they felt ready to take the challenge on: \u2018I played about with a lot of different ways of doing this game and different levels of fidelity and control. But I kept coming back to the strength of being behind the eyes of the character, which just seemed so effective when you have these hosts. And, actually, it allows the text to play this really interesting role. Because one thing I did find making something like Citizen Sleeper is that the text had to do a lot of work to give information.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018One thing I love about games like, let\u2019s say <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2015\/09\/01\/dishonored-definitive-edition-review-any-port-in-a-storm-5369735\/\">Dishonored<\/a>, is where they don\u2019t give you the whole city to explore, they just let you have these little moments. You can maybe see them from each other \u2013 you can see the clock tower across the river \u2013 and you\u2019ve just got these little locations that are suggestive of a city. There\u2019s a reason why Dunwall and [Half-Life 2\u2019s] City 17 live in people\u2019s minds so strongly, and that\u2019s because they couldn\u2019t explore all of them; they weren\u2019t allowed to spoil the illusion for themselves. So for me, Signet City is working in that tradition.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>As far as Signet City\u2019s release is concerned, all we currently know is that it will arrive some time in 2027. But when it does, be prepared to find a game that looks, feels, and plays quite differently to anything you\u2019ve experienced before.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"363\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_305106070-5a9c.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-29127768\" alt=\"Signet City screenshot of London block of flats\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Are the parasites aliens? (Fellow Traveller)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em>Email\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2026\/07\/14\/signet-city-preview-80s-inspired-sci-fi-maker-citizen-sleeper-29127511\/mailto:gamecentral@metro.co.uk\">gamecentral@metro.co.uk<\/a>, leave a comment below,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GameCentral\">follow us on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To submit Inbox letters and Reader\u2019s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our\u00a0<a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/submit-stuff\/\">Submit Stuff page here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For more stories like this,\u00a0<a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/entertainment\/gaming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">check our Gaming page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2026\/07\/13\/ea-sports-fc-27-cover-bring-back-cristiano-ronaldo-8-years-says-leak-29128127\/?ico=more_text_links\" class=\"\">EA Sports FC 27 cover to bring back Cristiano Ronaldo after 8 years says leak<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2026\/07\/13\/halo-campaign-evolved-best-pre-order-deals-get-early-access-29127415\/?ico=more_text_links\" class=\"\">Halo: Campaign Evolved best pre-order deals and how to get early access<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: <a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2026\/07\/13\/people-playing-14-year-old-black-ops-2-black-ops-7-suggests-stats-29125563\/?ico=more_text_links\" class=\"\">More people are playing 14 year old Black Ops 2 over Black Ops 7 suggests stats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><a data-ico=\"hyperlink-article\" class=\"metro-button share-bar-preferred-source\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/metro.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/a><\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--gaming\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>GameCentral<\/h4>\n<p>Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Signet City \u2013 that definitely looks like London (Fellow Traveller) British indie games developer Gareth Damian Martin has returned with a new sci-fi game that mixes 80s social realism and sci-fi, with a very distinctive first person viewpoint. Gareth Damian Martin is one of the rising stars of the UK games development establishment \u2013 although&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_305106012-f664_1783958434.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200&h=630&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}