Developed by Malaysian-based Quurk Studios, Pastopia is a third-person, open-world adventure where you hold the power to create your world — all through the magic of code. The game recently released its first demo on Steam in conjunction with Steam Next Fest and the Southeast Asian Games Showcase, giving us a first teaser of its mechanics in action.
Set in a world reminiscent of The Talos Principle and The Witness, you wield the power of code as a Memory Walker to restore the mystical lands of Talmanu. Together with your Golem A.I. companion, discover ancient ruins, solve puzzles, and uncover the lost memories of the realm, all while developing coding skills while you play.
Inspired by the belief that “the programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future”, Pastopia uses the basics of MiniScript and Python to teach its players how to solve puzzles around its world, whether you’re spawning objects, building structures, or programming movements. If you ever get stuck, your A.I. companion Golem aids you with its coding knowledge by simply answering questions that you type into the game.
The goal is for players to naturally develop coding knowledge by solving puzzles, with no prior programming experience required. Reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the game’s open-world approach also means that you can freely experiment with coding to tackle problems in your own way.
Available on Steam now, the free demo is limited to a short tutorial section, but gives players a good idea of what the final game will have in store. While the tutorialisation still feels a little rough around the edges, most of the puzzles are intuitively designed and signals to the potential this game has in store for its final release.
If you’d like to try it yourself, you can wishlist Pastopia and try the demo now on Steam.
