Webzen—the legendary studio behind the massive MU series of mobile and PC RPGs—has just lifted the lid on its next big mobile game, and it’s not what you’re expecting.
ToyTopia: Match3 (we’ll stick to ToyTopia from now on) is, as the name suggests, a match-three puzzler involving toys.
It’s currently being developed by Webzen subsidiary Cube Inc., whose staff have worked on a host of casual classics.
This isn’t the first foray Webzen has taken away from the RPG genre, with golf game Shot Online and cuesports sim POOLTIME both joining the studio’s stable of games in recent years.
With ToyTopia, Webzen is clearly seeking to add casual gamers to its bustling community of players.
Gameplay-wise, ToyTopia will see you matching three or more blocks in competition with a series of Villain gimmicks. If you’ve played a match-three puzzler before—and, let’s face it, you definitely have—you’ll be on reassuringly familiar ground.
That’s not to say ToyTopia isn’t bringing anything new to the party. In fact, Webzen Cube Inc. has incorporated a neat-looking toy-building feature.
We’re not completely sure how it works, but from what we can gather you’ll need to collect stars by completing puzzle stages, and then spend those stars on unlocking characters via a contraption called the Dreamcatcher Machine.
Once you’ve got a few toy characters to play with, you’ll be able to place them in corresponding toy-themed buildings to earn Coins.
Over time ToyTopia will let you build your very own world of toy characters and buildings, which is objectively adorable.
As you might have guessed, there’s no firm release date for ToyTopia at this point, but Webzen claims that a soft launch is slated for Q3 this year, which means you could be playing as soon as next month on your iOS or Android device.
In the meantime, you can follow the official ToyTopia Facebook page for updates.