{"id":68244,"date":"2026-06-15T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=68244"},"modified":"2026-06-15T18:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T09:57:08","slug":"robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/","title":{"rendered":"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japanese indie game circle Buttercup Garden released Robot Hospice<\/strong>, a free-to-play 2D adventure game set in an elderly home for robots<\/a>, on June 10. As Midori, the new employee, you interact with five terminally ill robots as they spend their final days in the titular Robot Hospice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Robot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As you converse with the robot senior citizens, you\u2019ll deepen your bonds. This leads you to uncover more about their past as well as any final requests that they might have that will (hopefully) make their passing easier. While there is really only one ending, the choices you make determine how you say goodbye to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the developer, the game was inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s dystopian science fiction novel Klara and the Sun, in which a robot named Klara does everything she can to ensure the happiness of Josie, her sickly owner. While the novel pitted humans and robots against each other, Buttercup Garden leader Dokokashira Doko was inspired to make the narrative more heartwarming after hearing Somi, the creator of No Case Should Remain Unsolved<\/a>, speak at the 2024 Indie Developers Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Robot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robot Hospice currently has a \u201cPositive\u201d rating on Steam, with players praising its emotional story, beautiful pixel art, touching music, and its ability to \u201cmake such a small place feel huge.\u201d The game is free for Windows (Steam<\/a>), with a free web browser version set to release sometime in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japanese indie game circle Buttercup Garden’s 2D pixel-styled indie game Robot Hospice has just released for free on Steam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":68245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-06-15T14:00:07+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3modgzaigwb22","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3modgzaigwb22\",\"cid\":\"bafyreic23isimjgsed2c6jzpjr4sl3l3wivjrml76qnbvrtnsybdv3omgu\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreicjbmfhrs2g5snpsplh7tmdjjituu737ckhasdchisuuy62llxtlq\",\"rev\":\"3modgzairnz22\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3],"tags":[39,17],"class_list":["post-68244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-indie-games","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nRobot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Japanese indie game circle Buttercup Garden's 2D pixel-styled indie game Robot Hospice has just released for free on Steam.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Japanese indie game circle Buttercup Garden's 2D pixel-styled indie game Robot Hospice has just released for free on Steam.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-15T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260615-68244-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos "Zoto" Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos "Zoto" Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Japanese indie game circle Buttercup Garden's 2D pixel-styled indie game Robot Hospice has just released for free on Steam.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Japanese indie game circle Buttercup Garden's 2D pixel-styled indie game Robot Hospice has just released for free on Steam.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-06-15T14:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1536,"height":864,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260615-68244-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam","datePublished":"2026-06-15T14:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/"},"wordCount":253,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260615-68244-header.jpg","keywords":["Indie Games","News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Indie Games","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/","name":"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260615-68244-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-15T14:00:00+00:00","description":"Japanese indie game circle Buttercup Garden's 2D pixel-styled indie game Robot Hospice has just released for free on Steam.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260615-68244-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260615-68244-header.jpg","width":1536,"height":864,"caption":"Robot Hospice"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/robot-hospice-heartwarming-japanese-indie-game-where-you-provide-end-of-life-care-for-five-terminally-ill-robots-releases-for-free-on-steam\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Robot Hospice, heartwarming Japanese indie game where you provide end-of-life care for five terminally ill robots, releases for free on Steam"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31","name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","caption":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor"},"description":"Automaton West writer. Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming. When he isn't playing video games, he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/carlos-zotomayor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68249,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68244\/revisions\/68249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}