Encodya is the Blade Runner/Studio Ghibli crossover we didn’t know we needed

Technological dystopia just got cute.

We know this genre, we’ve seen it on screen many times. But how many times have we actually seen the futuristic dystopia from the perspective of a nine year old girl? Usually its a genre exclusively reserved for men in leather jackets with a lil bit of stubble to show they’re going through some stuff. The point-and-click adventure Encodya looks like it’s finally going to take a new perspective, and it just got fully funded on Kickstarter.

Originally starting life as a short film entitled ‘Robot Will Protect You’, Encodya follows a 9 year old orphan named Tina, and her robot guardian. The year is 2062, and we’re in Neo-Berlin, a futuristic version of our world that looks like a combination of Fifth Element and Blade Runner. While the environment itself is bleak, the character design of Tina and her robot SAM-53 is Studio Ghibli like in its cartoonish sweetness. They live together on the rooftops of the city, making a living from the scraps they find along the way.

The pair’s world changes forever when Tina realises her father has left her an important mission – they must ‘save the world from grayness’. Through various puzzles, environments and with plenty of weird characters to meet along the way, the two friends will discover what is means to be alive, and how they can affect the world for the better. There are over 50 locations to explore and 30 professionally dubbed characters to meet as you journey along.

Encodya is expected for release in 2020, but you can still support it on Kickstarter.