My name is Greg Johnson, and I’ve been making games longer than I’d like to admit (ever heard of Toejam and Earl? If you’ve heard of my first game, Starflight, you’re older than you probably want to admit). We at HumaNature (that’s Human Nature… not Huma Nature by the way) are a pretty small group, as far as game development groups go these days. Our (admittedly lofty) goal is to create new and original game experiences that reach out to people looking for more humanity in games. We love interactive stories, emotional expression, and self-discovery — we’re not so big on shooting things.

Here at HNS we are hard at work building a game for PlayStation, who, thankfully, seems to like a lot of the same lofty things we do. Our game is called Doki-Doki Universe. It’s tough to describe Doki-Doki, because it’s actually a set of related products that will be released at the same time. Players’ first exposure to Doki-Doki will be in the form of a free download for their PS Vita, PS3 or PS4. This is a light version of the game where players can fly around a Universe and take fun personality quizzes.

This free game will include our fun Doki-Doki Mail messaging app, which players will also be able to get for free on mobile platforms, for cross-platform chat. If players decide they want to land on planets and interact with all the crazy characters in our Universe, they can purchase and download the full game, which you might call an ‘RPG/Simulation/Interactive Story’ game. There’s a lot more I could say, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Maybe I should tell you a bit about the game itself…

In Doki-Doki Universe, you’re a robot named Model QT377665, or QT3 for short (QT – get it?). Your human family said to wait here on this asteroid, and they would be right back to get you.

That was 11,432 days ago. Bummer.

To make matters worse, an alien that looks like a green hot-dog, named Alien Jeff, finds you and gives you some bad news: It turns out your model is getting recalled and scrapped, because you apparently don’t have enough “humanity”… whatever that is.

Alien Jeff has been assigned the task of discovering just how much “humanity” you are capable of, and reporting back to the company. So as you travel around the Universe on a giant flying pig (or whale, or poo, or whatever you choose) and visit themed planets (cute, scary, gross, robot, ice, etc.) you’ll interact with hundreds of some of the most bizarre characters you’ve ever heard of, and Alien Jeff will be watching you the whole time.

While you’re traveling the Universe, you’ll also stop at many tiny asteroids where you can take fun, visual personality tests. You can get a full personality report from the Therapist who lives on your home planet, which by the way, you get to decorate. You even get to visit your friend’s home planets and check out their personality reports.

Doki-Doki is a lot more than just a game. It’s a huge simulated “living” Universe of intriguing content, filled with interactive stories and self-discovery. From within Doki-Doki players can use Doki-Doki Mail that ‘magically’ animates anything you type, and lets you communicate in playfully expressive ways with friends who also have the game or the mobile app.

Doki-Doki Universe is new and ambitious. Rather than describe it, we just want you to experience it and see what you think. You might be charmed by it, or you may not, but we guarantee you won’t find anything “typical” about it.

Thanks from HumaNature Studios! (I’m the guy in the front with the robot and balloon on my t-shirt.)

For more on Doki-Doki Universe, check out Game Informer’s story.