Forged in the spirit of meaningful entertainment, The Alters is a base-building survival game driven by life-defining choices and exploring the diverse paths one could take. The inhospitable planet where Jan crash-landed is turning toward a massive sun, causing radiation levels to soar; in this desperate race against time, Jan must harness local Rapidium crystals to create his many versions: the “Alters”.
Have you ever considered how your life could have been altered if you had made different decisions? How might your personality or way of thinking be adjusted if you’d chosen a particular education or one professional path over another? The Alters is a game focused on those tiny, binary decisions that often happen in nanoseconds but have the potential to influence an entire lifespan.
Set within an ever-moving mobile base, both teamwork and building a wide range of expertise are indispensable for survival. By selecting diverging paths for the other Jans during the alteration process, they acquire distinct skill sets. They become invaluable, not only for maintaining the base, but also for tasks like cooking, crafting tools for surface exploration, and gathering essential resources.
However, the Alters are more than mere resources. They are sentient beings with their own emotions, problems, goals, and sometimes, existential doubts about their purpose. Despite their differences, their collective goal is to escape, echoing Jan's determination to survive: I'll just do it all by myselves.
The Alters begs a simple question surrounding life-changing moments and the decisions people make: What if…?
The trailer offers a first look at gameplay and introduces the protagonist Jan: a simple worker confronted by insurmountable odds, stranded alone on a distant planet.
Or rather, many Jans— alternate versions of our protagonist with their own varied life paths—making them similar yet different all at the same time.
Building relationships amongst the various Jans will be crucial to their collective survival.
Just like a classic piece of science fiction, The Alters allows players to investigate a compelling—and at times relatable—topic through the lens of its uniquely futuristic setting. Including the concept phase, the game, made by one of the three in-house development teams at 11 bit studios mostly assembled from the creators of This War of Mine, has been in development for almost three years and it’s powered by Unreal Engine.
The Alters is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam) in 2024.
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