Nico Papalia, the developer of Athenian Rhapsody, has announced a new game called Goobie Garden. It first showed up as a livestream project by him, and it seemed like just another one-off experiment.
But then, what started as a bit turned into something far more ambitious. The result now is a live-service mobile game. It draws inspiration from multiple games, like Animal Crossing, Pocket God, Mario Kart and Pokémon Go.
So, What Exactly Is Nico’s New Game Goobie Garden
Goobie Garden is a creature-collector game. It’s an evolving, seasonal world that leans heavily into customisation and community-driven features. You’ll hatch oddball creatures known as Goobies, which come with strange names, jobs, elements, and attitudes.
You then raise them by feeding them and answering personality-shaping questions. You even occasionally punch them, and that’s not counted as abuse. Weird!
All the interactions you make with the Goobies affect their evolution paths. The goal is to push them toward their final forms.
Thunder Goober, the mascot, has been carried over from Athenian Rhapsody. It sets three main goals for you. You have to fill up your Goobiedex, evolve your Goobies through bonding, and build a team to climb the PvP auto-battling ladder for monthly rewards.
Goobie Garden will be a free-to-play live-service game. So, the content will rotate and update every month. That includes new Goobies, realm decorations, changing seasonal environments, and all kinds of gear and cosmetics.
On that note, catch the first glimpse of this new game Goobie Garden here.
So, What’s Next?
The first hands-on with Nico’s new game Goobie Garden will arrive with a beta in August 2025. You have to register via email to take part in it. If you sign up early, you’ll receive launch rewards when the full game rolls out in Q4 2025. To do that, head over to the official website.
The devs also have plans to integrate Goobie Garden and Athenian Rhapsody and the upcoming Tales of Tuscany. I’m pretty excited for this new game, what about you? Meanwhile, be sure to read our next scoop on Goat Simulator 3 – Multiverse of Nonsense.