Cleaning up the Past in Ambrosia Sky

This week, we kick off 2026 by talking about Ambrosia Sky, a short, atmospheric sci-fi game that quietly wrecked us more than we expected. What starts as a PowerWash-adjacent cleanup sim turns into a meditation on grief, abandonment, and the emotional cost of leaving home. We talk about why smaller, constrained games are thriving right now, how Ambrosia Sky uses limitation as a strength, and why finishing Act One left us with far more questions than answers — in the best possible way.

Episode Notes

• We open the first episode of 2026 in full post-holiday time confusion: strange schedules, too much work, and no reliable sense of what day it is.
• Eden talks about covering extra shifts at the comic shop, double-dipping PTO, and the unfortunate result of biking home in brutal weather and bruising their ribs.
• A digression on sleep rituals follows, including Peter’s famously corpse-like sleeping position and Eden’s highly specific side-switching requirements.
• With it being January 1st, we reflect on 2025 as a pop-culture year — broadly rough, but not without meaningful discoveries.
• We note a shared shift toward shorter, more focused media, especially in games.

🎮 Why We Played

Ambrosia Sky

• We wanted something short, contained, and emotionally grounded.
• The “PowerWash Simulator with a story” pitch undersells what the game actually does.
• We appreciated the decision to release this explicitly as Act One, rather than early access.

🌌 Setting & Premise

• You play as Dalia, a “Scarab” who cleans exofungus and reclaims bodies for the Ambrosia Project.
• She returns to the asteroid colony she fled 15 years earlier — built inside a dead Leviathan.
• The colony is effectively empty; the story unfolds through terminals, logs, and environmental details.
• There are no live conversations, reinforcing isolation and loss.

🧠 Themes

• Grief, abandonment, and the emotional cost of leaving home.
• Labor as mourning: cleaning and reclamation as acts of reckoning.
• Unresolved relationships, especially between Dahlia and Maeve.
• Absence as a storytelling tool.

🛠️ Gameplay & Structure

• Core loop centers on spraying substances to remove fungal growth.
• Light Metroidvania structure with optional backtracking.
• Grappling hook works well, with occasional jank.
• Specialized sprays exist but feel lightly used.
• Puzzles focus on power routing and environmental access.
• The game benefits from being short; it would not sustain a longer runtime.

🎧 Atmosphere

• Strong, understated soundtrack that reinforces loneliness.
• Art direction does heavy emotional lifting despite a small budget.
• Exterior space sequences are a standout moment.
• The game consistently favors mood over exposition.

⚠️ Act One Ending

• The story ends abruptly and deliberately, offering few answers.
• Maeve is alive, but clearly changed.
• Major concepts — the Ambrosia Project, the Leviathan — remain unexplained.
• We found the ambiguity compelling rather than frustrating.

🧾 Closing Thoughts

• We’re glad we stuck with the game past early hesitation.
• The Act-based release feels honest and respectful of the player.
• Both of us plan to play the remaining acts at launch.
• Ambrosia Sky is a strong example of how small games can carry real emotional weight.