Santa Studio Announces Laica, A 3D Survival Horror Set On A Space Station
The announcement puts a first-time publisher behind a studio that has built its public-facing identity on Unreal Engine work since 2023, making the Steam page the first concrete look at how that pairing surfaces as a product.
Key Facts
- Santa Sunrise opened the Steam store page for Laica on October 8 and released an announce trailer for the game.
- Laica is planned for release in 2027 on PC via Steam, with the price undecided.
- Laica is developed by Santa Studio, the game studio of Santa Sunrise, and published by ambr Inc.
- Laica is ambr's first title as a publisher, following the work app gogh: Focus with Your Avatar.
- Laica supports Japanese voice with subtitles in Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
Reporting from 4 sources: 4Gamer.net, Automaton, Denfaminicogamer, Game Spark.
Santa Sunrise opened the Steam store page and released an announce trailer for Laica on October 8. The game is a first-person 3D survival horror developed by the company's game studio Santa Studio and published by ambr, the company behind the work-focus app gogh: Focus with Your Avatar. It is ambr's first title as a publisher. The release is planned for 2027 on PC via Steam, with the price undecided. Players wake in HOME, a residential facility floating in outer space, and meet Laica, a girl who has been living there alone. Meals, music, conversation, and zero-gravity drifting are the cohabitation side. The other half is exploration: a space facility twisted beyond recognition by an unknown thing, where creatures roam in darkness and the player gathers items while evading them. As exploration and return repeat, abnormalities reach HOME and eventually Laica. The choices the player makes during exploration determine the ending. Voice is in Japanese, with subtitle support for Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
Development is by Santa Studio, the game studio inside Santa Sunrise that began in 2023 out of the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Engineering. Automaton notes the studio has worked on titles using Unreal Engine, and the press release describes Laica itself as UE5-made.
- Denfaminicogamer writes that the studio's representative director is Kenya Okubo.
- Automan describes the cohabitation loop as the primary mode: daily time with Laica at HOME first, with conversation, outings, and shared moments changing the distance between the two.
- The official X account opened in August 2026, and clips of zero-gravity time with the girl had been posted there in the weeks before the Steam page went live.
- Game Spark groups the features as cohabitation life, the daily-horror loop, 3D exploration of the transformed facility, the slow erosion of HOME, and endings that shift with player choices.
- In the released footage and stills, Automaton points to a creature shaped like a hand, a red-black space, and a faceless presence.
- Automaton also notes the vocal performances have a raw feel.
The story alternates between two modes of completely different nature, and the questions the game poses are who Laica is, what happened in this space, and why the protagonist is there. Wishlist registrations are open on the Steam page.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 4 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- 4Gamer.net 3Dサバイバルホラー「Laica」，Steamストアページを公開。謎の少女・ライカと共同生活を送りながら，異形の存在が徘徊する闇の世界を探索しよう
- Automaton 謎の少女と過ごす宇宙ステーションホラー『Laica』正式発表。変わり果てた宇宙施設で見つける、少女ライカと宇宙の真実
- Denfaminicogamer かわいい女の子と宇宙で共同生活→いきなりホラー全開でこわすぎる…… 期待の新作ゲーム『Laica』発表
- Game Spark 美少女と宇宙ステーションで2人きりの穏やかな日々…しかし、その裏で日常が侵食され異形が徘徊する不穏3Dサバイバルホラー『Laica』正式発表