First peek offered at The Other Side of the Wall

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Upcoming mystery adventure unveiled by Dionous Games and Alkis Polyrakis, creator of 2008's Diamonds in the Rough

In 2008, Alkis Polyrakis launched a promising debut commercial adventure called Diamonds in the Rough. It's been nearly two decades since then, but proving it's never too late for a comeback, the indie Greek developer and his Atropos Studios have just announced plans for a brand new game, The Other Side of the Wall.

It's the early 1980s, and Julian Reed is a 13-year old student at Saint Maximus the Confessor Catholic School. Curiously, the all-boys boarding school shares an adjoining wall with Cedar Tree House, an institution for "troubled cases" that remains "shrouded in mystery." There is no contact between the two facilities – at least, "not as far as the students are concerned" – and no discussion of the school's counterpart is permitted by the Benedictine monks who teach at Saint Maximus. That all changes in late August, before the new semester even begins, with "only a few students and faculty members" on the premises. It's then that Julian "discovers a tiny hole in an isolated corner of the wall ... just big enough for him to see a pair of blue eyes" looking back. The girl they belong to a girl who becomes Julian's "closest confidante" and a "welcome distraction" from monotonous routine. Soon, however, despite their physical separation, the two find themselves swept up in a mystery when Julian's classmates begin disappearing and no one "seems to remember they ever existed." 

As with its distant (and unrelated) predecessor, The Other Side of the Wall is a classic-styled, 2.5D third-person point-and-click adventure. As you guide Julian around his school and its surrounding grounds, you'll encounter an assortment of fully voiced characters to talk to on his own side of the wall – and of course one he can only communicate with from afar. Along the way there will be numerous items to collect and store in your inventory at the top of the screen, which you'll need to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles in the environment. The gameplay experience is designed for those who "enjoy being challenged ... and rewarded for paying close attention to subtle clues." As you progress, the story promises "more than a whodunit" as you gradually uncover a coming-of-age tale "about friendship, curiosity, and the unsettling feeling that something is terribly wrong," as experienced by a teen boy who "finds himself in over his head."

There is no firm target release date just yet, but The Other Side of the Wall will be published on Steam by Dionous Games as part of its ever-expanding catalogue of new adventures, expected sometime in the middle of 2027 on Windows PC.