They Speak From The Abyss: Zenith has it's first public demo available NOW!
Here is a presskit[drive.google.com] for any creators who want to give this game a whirl.

This game has improved by leaps and bounds the last few months, and we feel it is finally ready for a public debut. This whole journey started nearly 2 years ago with the release of a demo. The interest shown in that simple build encouraged us to pursue a Kickstarter campaign, that funded the next stage of development!

Zenith is a standalone prequel, featuring a separate protagonist, story and events from the full They Speak From The Abyss game - setting the stage for the upcoming full release!

Development has been happening behind closed doors for a long time now, doing our very best as a small team of 3 to playtest this game and polish it as thoroughly as possible. The game is very much still under active development, and the feedback we receive at this time will be invaluable for finishing Zenith, carrying forward to the full game.

Please drop your bug/crash reports over in this Steam discussion thread.

After the Next Fest, we will be drawing out an internal roadmap towards release, and will hold off on announcing a release date until we're 100% confident it will be achievable. Much of the important mechanical work is already in place, so we expect development to hit a nice healthy stride again after this event.

The #1 thing you can do to help us at this time, would be add both Zenith and the full TSFTA to your Steam Wishlist. This lets Steam know people are interested, and can help grant us wider visibility around the store. Thank you all SO much for your support!!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393290/They_Speak_From_The_Abyss_Zenith/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2075460/They_Speak_From_The_Abyss/

We are thrilled to have Zenith chosen to take part in Realms Deep 2023! This project has always been rather niche. So having an event as prominent and well regarded as Realms Deep single us out is both incredibly flattering, and motivating!!

We fully intended to have a playable version available for this event. Our apologies to anyone who landed on this page from the "Games with Demos" category. I don't think there's any way to drop out of that list at this stage?? The why is a bit longer of a story...

Zenith is a standalone Prequel to They Speak From The Abyss. This isn't a glorified demo, uploaded as a "Prologue", which has become a rather common developer trick here on Steam. While Zenith features locations and character from the Main Game, it is fully it's own game and experience!

Our initial decision to make this Prequel available for Free was made when the game was a fraction of it's current size. Zenith was originally conceived 7 MONTHS ago!! The project has grown a LOT since then! As an example, the game now features over 50 unique monsters, and 30 originals tracks in the OST.

With a growing scope, a challenging move to a new city mid-development, followed by Unity fully melting down - we had to re-evaluate a lot of things. It was decided that development will continue in Unity (starting over would be too costly), but not after weeks spent agonizing over whether that was still feasible. Especially when Free releases could potentially end up costing money to release with Unity's new Runtime Fee. That situation is a mess...

It took quite some time to come to terms with it - but Zenith will now be a paid release. We promise the price tag on this game won't break the bank! It will likely be somewhere close to $5 at launch.

No release date is set - and unfortunately due to missing our original release target, we are unable to change it to anything other than the "Coming Soon" you currently see. A demo is in the works, and will be announced on Nikki's twitter as soon as it's available! And be sure to Wishlisht the full game so you are notified for it's full release!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393290/They_Speak_From_The_Abyss_Zenith/

-Graeme
(2 Left Thumbs)