An upcoming card game appears to mix the cyberpunk strategy of the classic board game Android: Netrunner with the cooperative narratives told in Arkham Horror: The Card Game, wrapped in a more optimistic vision of the future.
Neon Hope challenges up to four players (or a single player in single-player mode) to prevent the impending dystopia caused by giant tech companies. Instead of Netrunner's hacker-versus-megacorporation competition, here players are on the same side and work together to steer the future toward a tech-filled utopia.
The game’s creators, Hopeful Games, describe their setting as a mix of the anti-capitalist warnings of traditional cyberpunk with the positive outlook of the solarpunk subgenre, which seeks to imagine a world where humanity can harness the environment sustainably using concepts such as renewable energy and living in harmony with nature. The game is set in a futuristic version of Berlin, offering a sci-fi setting with a more European feel compared to the American perspective of many classic cyberpunk games, which also have a patchy history with orientalist tropes.
Inspiration from the living card game Arkham Horror is reflected in Neon Hope’s story-driven, episodic scenarios, in which player decisions branch the interactive narrative in multiple directions. That potential variety is also offered through the game’s 400-plus cards, each illustrated by the game’s artists in keeping with the cyberpunk-solarpunk style.
Hopeful Games plans to crowdfund Neon Hope on Kickstarter in early 2025, and the team is currently testing their prototype at events. Demos of the game can also be found in print and digital formats on their Discord channel, if you're curious to try it out for yourself.