Aphotic demo awakens on Steam

• Announcements by Sam Amiotte-Beaulieu
• Published:

Full version of wordless sci-fi pixel art adventure to disembark soon on Windows, Mac, and Linux

It’s said that in space no one can hear you scream, but in the upcoming retro-styled adventure Aphotic, Ivan Voirol and Swiss studio Play Don’t Tell go the extra mile in ensuring you can’t even read a scream in space.

You play a passenger on a massive spaceship who suddenly wakes up from cryogenic sleep to find yourself all alone. The rest of the vessel is completely deserted, except for a skittish little bird-like creature who seems determined to remain just out of reach. There are no character dialogues, item descriptions, or log entries to explain what happened here, or even what you need to do. In order to “uncover the reasons for your abrupt awakening and the dangers threatening your journey,” you have no choice but to explore the ship and repair damaged systems along the way. As you progress, you’ll find that “every machine, tool, and symbol holds meaning,” but in each case you'll have to decipher what that is for yourself. 

Designed as a point-and-click adventure in a completely “textless universe,” what Aphotic lacks in dialogue it makes up with pixel art “brimming with color.” This includes strange alien plant life with “vivid” palettes and psychedelic imagery, though each new room is often enveloped in darkness until you get broken or powerless equipment operating. With no directions of any kind, the ship serves as “a playground where everything can be understood by playing,” and careful observation of your surroundings will lead to solutions. Every location will “test your logic,” and successfully navigating the sprawling interiors of the mysterious spaceship requires utilizing the items you acquire to modify your surroundings, with progress unfolding nonlinearly through “evolving challenges and secrets” along the way. 

There is no release date yet to explore the dark reaches of Aphotic, but a demo is available now on Steam for Windows and Linux for any aspiring galactic adventurers wanting to take a first look. A Mac version of the full game is also expected upon completion.

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