A Life Sim Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Played

We’ve all played this story before: the exhausted corporate employee who hits a breaking point with their dead-end job and decides to escape to a far-off farm. Curiously enough, that could literally be the description for Neverway, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first glance.

Reality bends and warps in these mind-bending indie games and nothing is as it seems. Get ready to question everything.

However, Coldblood studio’s debut title is an experience that subverts the typical “cozy” plot of running away from the real world. Instead, it pokes at some very real, existential questions that, sooner or later, we all end up facing at some point in our lives – whether we want to or not.

A Quiet Descent Into the Self

I really enjoy it when a game starts in an unconventional way. There’s no quote, date, or big twist at the beginning of Neverway, just a few personal questions directed at you, like “What’s your favorite food?” and “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

This is how the game introduces us to Fiona’s current life, our protagonist. Within the first few minutes, it’s clear she’s in a bad place – especially mentally. She is the one questioning her own life after quitting a high-pressure job at a major corporation, and we find her isolated in her apartment, where she has been since the day she resigned.

Coldblood studio’s debut title is an experience that subverts the typical “cozy” plot of running away from the real world. Instead, it pokes at some very real, existential questions that, sooner or later, we all end up facing at some point in our lives.

After these introductory scenes, you are free to walk around her apartment. You quickly realize that Neverway is indeed a life sim, but one that is heavily narrative-driven and deeply tied to the main character’s emotional state. This means that the mechanics are quite simple, yet significantly effective at transmitting her feelings directly to the player.

With an extremely simple to-do list, you are limited to tasks that consume very little energy at the beginning of her journey – and one look at her stamina bar confirms she isn’t well. You can try to interact with the computer to distract yourself, for example, but you’ll find Fiona only has the strength to aimlessly scroll through her emails. You can try to leave the apartment, only to have Fiona internally admit that she doesn’t know why, but she simply can’t do it. As someone who lives with someone who has struggled with depression, this hit me incredibly hard. And it was enough to realize I wasn’t playing just any ordinary life sim.

Surrealism and Horror

I was able to play only the prologue of Neverway, which lasted about an hour. As I progressed, I caught more glimpses of the game’s “survival” mechanics. They all seem brilliantly realistic in their simplicity, like moving faster for a while after a cup of coffee, or having a (literal) random pain status the next morning if you sleep without your comfy pajamas.

With this gameplay as the backdrop, we see Fiona feeling stuck throughout the game’s opening chapter. After picking up her belongings at her old job, she feels the urgent need to flee and find herself again, and this is the moment she escapes the city to isolate herself on a farm she’s seen in various TV ads and billboards. It is also this moment where I must explain that, despite touching on real and universal themes, there is an unexpected touch of sci-fi and horror here!

That’s because Neverway is set in a world that is seemingly different from ours, where supernatural events called “Misplaces” occur. I don’t want to say too much about them – partly because they are better experienced firsthand, and partly because they remain a mystery even to me – but they seem to have a massive impact on Fiona’s story. And these events bring a direct, literal horror element to the game, featuring surreal sequences and enemies that look like they crawled out of a nightmare.

Furthermore, there are segments that take place inside the protagonist’s computer, which has its own mysterious aura. It essentially functions as a “programmed reality” connected to her feelings and real-world experiences. It feels very much like a dream, yet there’s something surrealistically real about it. This is where the action picks up, featuring combat (also simple, with melee weapons and basic attacks only) against nightmare-like creatures, unique items like a hookshot, and distorted versions of people Fiona knows.

The Art of Melancholy

I hope that when I’m describing all of this, you, dear reader, get to feel what I felt while playing this preview: that Neverway has a layered construction, giving off a sense of meticulous attention to detail, as one would expect from a standout indie title. This is also reflected in its aesthetic, which is vital to the melancholy atmosphere.

The hypnotizing pixel art constantly plays with color palettes to intensify Fiona’s emotions. For instance, her apartment is rendered entirely in shades of gray-toned green, which practically screams loneliness. And the same can be said for the soundtrack by Disasterpeace, mainly known for his work on Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash. The music intensifies during the surreal horror sequences, while the “calmer” moments rely on heavy silence and unsettling sound effects to build tension.

And the project becomes even more interesting when you look at Coldblood Inc. itself. It’s a small studio featuring Pedro Medeiros (who previously worked on Celeste, a game with similar themes, by the way) leading the art and design, and Isadora Sophia handling code and story, bringing her experience from cool indie projects and her own pixel art engine.

An Unpredictable Journey

Simply watching the trailer and reading about Neverway beforehand left me feeling like I didn’t quite grasp what the game was. Now, after an hour of play, that feeling of not knowing exactly what the game will deliver has curiously intensified. However, I feel this isn’t a bad thing! For me, that made me feel that the game is unpredictable, which is an amazing trait for a life sim.

Neverway has a layered construction, giving off a sense of meticulous attention to detail, as one would expect from a standout indie title.

Moreover, I felt that having things not necessarily make sense or be clear right away is essential to the experience – because with depression, the feeling is often the same.

In the end, Neverway is a slow-burning life sim with horror twists (that occasionally feel too real) as they follow someone struggling to find themselves again, while using its mechanics to deepen the story and the character’s feelings even more. And I really can’t wait to play its full version when it comes out this year. That said, it undoubtedly looks like one of the indispensable indies of 2026.