Sub-Verge arises on Windows PC 

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Unique conversation-driven underwater survival adventure available now on Steam and itch.io

Lots of adventure games allow players the opportunity to talk their way out of trouble, but rarely are both the stakes and pressure as high as they are in Interactive Tragedy, Limited's newly released conversation-driven survival thriller, Sub-Verge.

At a time when the world's oceans have become "dead, poisoned, full of monstrosities," an ill-fated coup led by a charismatic leader called "The Mind" resulted in a few hundred rebels being banished to find shelter in the sea. There they were able to establish an underwater base, but the lights attracted the "Krake," a terrifying, nearly transparent creature with a giant "jelly-sac head ... pincers to feed it [and] a cluster of Medusa eyes, watching everything." No divers were safe to venture out while it lurked, and those forced to do so on patrol were "suffocated by a terrible fear." One night, one of the unfortunate divers spots a "SubVee, hints of light gleaming from its cracks, sinking towards [the] base." As the player, YOU are the occupant of that submersible, and if you're to survive the ensuing encounter, you'll need to "manipulate a fractured band of deep-sea divers ... before your leaky sub fills with water, or something even more horrific from the depths silences you all.

Described as a short "psychological narrative puzzle," the claustrophobic, hand-drawn Sub-Verge is certainly not your traditional adventure. But nor does it rely on strength and speed to overcome the intense pressure you face, both literal and figurative as you sink ever lower into the ocean's depths. Instead you must use wits and guile to steer the conversation rather than your vessel. The ragtag band of divers who surround you each have their own "motivations, secrets, and survival instincts" for you to discover and use to your advantage. With the help of remote hints sent from the surface, success will depend on you forming strategic allegiances and choosing "the right diver at the right time to gain leverage, unlock secrets, and steer the group toward survival." How you choose to do so is up to you, as there are "many ways out" with multiple possible endings – some of them fatal. Not only is your SubVee slowing taking on water, but "every time the eldritch shadow of the Krake appears, the divers scatter," only to regroup in larger numbers. You'll need a form a consensus between them to escape, so "as more divers join, and pull you further into their dysfunction, you’ve got to think carefully to anchor your fate."

For those ready to take the plunge, you can do so right away as Sub-Verge is available now on Steam and itch.io for Windows PC. To learn more about its world, you can also download Subtle Mind, a 74-page prequel story available exclusively as DLC, telling the origin story of The Mind and the "the enigmatic leader of a fractured band of renegade divers hiding out beneath the waves."