What PANELKI is
PANELKI puts you in the boots of a utility worker in an endless Siberian city built from panel houses. You take on assignments from the utility services — cleaning entrances, screwing in light bulbs, erasing graffiti — and get paid for each job. The money goes toward a ticket out of the city and a new life somewhere else. The city itself is open and procedurally generated: roads, houses, playgrounds, garages, schools and other structures, with panel houses generated both outside and inside, so no two are the same. Snow is a real object you can work with. You dig snowdrifts at entrances and off cars, clear roofs, or pile it up into a tower, and better shovels let you move more of it. The world runs on a day/night cycle with dynamic weather, from a heavy night blizzard to a quiet snowfall at noon. Standing out in the cold too long makes your character freeze, so you head indoors to warm up. Basements hold useful items: shovels, intercom keys, light bulbs, snowman carrots, a flashlight and other things, and you can switch on the heating down there.
Playing it with friends
The game has online co-op, so a group can work the same city together. Split up over jobs — one person on the entrances, another on bulbs, another on graffiti — or team up on one building and clear it out between you. Snow play works the same way with company: dig drifts together, or throw snowballs at each other. The store text notes one practical thing about co-op: don't lose sight of each other, since the city is large and the weather can cut visibility down hard.
Things to know before starting
The atmosphere is harsh and cold rather than cozy, though the look stays minimalist and cute. Weather and darkness are constant factors, so expect to plan routes around warmth and light — a flashlight from a basement helps at night. There are multiple endings, which means how and when you reach your ticket matters. The game also has a cinematic mode: you can stop anywhere, open the camera and frame the view, with plenty of image settings to change the mood of the shot. That camera has a job attached to it — once you've finished all the actions at a house, photograph it from the outside for in-game money. All screenshots on the store page come from this mode, which gives a fair idea of what the city looks like when you slow down and just look at it.