Development History

Bloomwalker is developed by Netmarble Neo and published by Netmarble. It was revealed as Project Bloomwalker at gamescom 2025 and returned under its current name at Tokyo Game Show 2026, when its store pages opened and Netmarble first described it as based on the Ni no Kuni IP. As of September 2026 it had no release date; current status is on Release Date and Platforms.

Developer

Netmarble's Korean blog listed Netmarble Neo's earlier games as Lineage 2: Revolution, Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds and Solo Leveling: ARISE, and called Bloomwalker a new challenge for the studio in the crafting adventure genre. Netmarble has described it as a game for PC and console from the start.

Park Ki-bin

Park Ki-bin, planning team lead at Netmarble Neo, presented the game in interviews at gamescom 2025. He described its core idea as the enjoyment of healing and restoring the world, a game about caring for things and bringing them back rather than fighting to win, and set it against crafting games built around survival. He said the team hoped an environmental theme and an emotional tone would draw more players to the crafting genre.

In the same interviews he explained the Moving House as a fix for the stress of choosing a poor base site early in a crafting game, said the house moved automatically in the demo but could be steered freely in the full game, described a magical door that expands the interior instead of the outer walls, and said cooperative play was planned. He did not give a release timing.

Engine

Netmarble's August 2025 announcement says the game's world is built in Unreal Engine 5.

Gamescom 2025 Reveal

The game was first shown on August 20, 2025 (CET) in the Xbox @ gamescom 2025 Broadcast, with a five-minute developer walkthrough of gameplay played by the development team. Netmarble's Korean blog said the reveal came out of close cooperation with Xbox. Netmarble brought three titles to gamescom 2025, and Project Bloomwalker was the only one shown for the first time.

A playable demo of about 15 minutes ran at the Xbox booth in Cologne through August 24. It was available on PC and in English only. Netmarble listed its content as exploring unknown regions, purifying polluted nature, gathering resources and crafting, bonding with the companions, and fighting intruders. How the demo's purification systems worked is covered on Cleansing and Purification.

On August 21, Netmarble posted an announcement trailer of about two minutes and the five-minute gameplay trailer on its global and Korean YouTube channels, and Xbox published a hands-on preview. On August 22, Netmarble Korea announced the official trailer and the opening of the game's official X account, @Bloomwalker_SNS, which it said would share development progress.

The 2025 material set up a different premise from the current one, with a meteor strike and beings called Bloomwalkers (see Luminoa). It introduced Kettlekid, a spirit with the power to purify, and a mysterious black cat living in the house that is tied to the world's purification and hides a secret that had not been revealed. Neither had appeared in 2026 material as of September 2026. Netmarble's English 2025 announcement did not mention Ni no Kuni, and its copyright line named only Netmarble Corp. and Netmarble Neo Inc.

Cross Worlds Staff Note

In the same Korean release that announced the official trailer (posted on August 25, 2025), Netmarble said Project Bloomwalker was being developed with the participation of the development staff of Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds. This concerned the team, not the setting, and the release did not say the game belonged to the Ni no Kuni series.

Tokyo Game Show 2026

The game returned on September 17, 2026, in the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 Broadcast; the show itself ran from September 17 to 21 at Makuhari Messe. A new 73-second trailer went up on new official YouTube channels in English and Japanese. Netmarble said it showed the protagonist with familiars and higgledies and gave the first look at the Pocket Dimension, a space reached through a door inside the moving house where players can build and customize.

The store pages on Xbox, Steam and PlayStation opened for wishlisting the same day. Netmarble Korea and Netmarble Japan published their releases on September 18, with the Japanese release naming the @Bloomwalker_JP account. The reveal came through Xbox's broadcast rather than Netmarble's own booth: Netmarble Japan's July 2026 announcement had listed three other titles for its Tokyo Game Show 2026 booth.

Name Changes

The game was announced as Project Bloomwalker and appeared as Bloomwalker by September 17, 2026. Netmarble's 2026 releases use the shorter title and refer back to the gamescom 2025 reveal without commenting on the change. Several other names shifted between the two periods.

The 2025 reveal called the small spirit companions Oddlings; 2026 material calls them higgledies. No source has described this as a rename.

Connection to Ni no Kuni

Netmarble's September 17, 2026 English press release describes Bloomwalker as based on the Ni no Kuni IP, and the Korean and Japanese releases say the same. Xbox's Tokyo Game Show 2026 recap called it officially part of the Ni no Kuni universe. The Steam and PlayStation Store pages and Netmarble's September 2026 press releases carry the line "© LEVEL5 Inc. © Netmarble Corp. & Netmarble Neo Inc. All Rights Reserved."

As of September 2026, no official source had stated what role Level-5 plays in development, or how Bloomwalker relates to the existing Ni no Kuni games. The setting has not been placed in relation to any other Ni no Kuni world. Apart from the IP description, the only link Netmarble has stated is the involvement of Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds staff noted in 2025.

Timeline