Darkstone Bay lands on Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Lost ship puzzle-adventure from M9 Games available now on PC; still to come on consoles

The search for shipwrecks is a fascinating endeavour, as there are years of history lost to the depths of the sea, just waiting to be discovered. Except, what if the ship you're looking for was never really there? This is the surprising conundrum at the heart of Darkstone Bay, the newly released puzzle-adventure from prolific indie developer M9 Games.

The Spanish galleon El Diablo Dormido (The Sleeping Devil) disappeared in the spring of 1721, and all mention of its existence was wiped from the official records. At the time, "no wreckage was ever found [and] no survivors ever surfaced," so historians believed the ship was "lost to a storm somewhere in the Atlantic." More than three centuries later, however, it turns out the ship didn't sink at all. In fact, "it never left the island" it was scheduled to depart. Which means "neither did its secrets." As you arrive at the uncharted Darkstone Bay, you are determined to discover the truth – and hey, if it turns out there's some treasure involved, all the better!

Fans of the indie British developer (Project 7: Escape Room, DEDALO, VENARI, many others) will have a good idea of what to expect, as Darkstone Bay is another picturesque first-person adventure. Via the standard WASD control scheme on keyboard and mouse, players will traverse the island's varied terrain, from "sandy beaches to ancient caves, old mines and dense jungle." Each location is filled with objects to find and ancient symbols to decode in order to solve the many escape-room-styled puzzles you can expect to encounter along the way. 

Darkstone Bay is ready for exploring now on Steam for Windows PC, and will be ported to PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms sometime over the course of the next "couple of months."

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