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…?

While The Alters may seem worlds apart from 11 bit studios' This War of Mine, the two share more than just a part of the development team.

At their core, both games are about survival. In This War of Mine, days and nights pass as you do whatever it takes to outlast the war in a besieged city. In The Alters, survival is a race against time—a relentless battle against a scorching sun that will turn everything to dust if you fail to keep your mobile base moving.

Both games force you to step out of your safe space—whether it’s a bombed-out shelter in This War of Mine or the expandable, circular base in The Alters. In both, venturing into a hostile environment isn’t just a risk—it’s a necessity in a world where resources are scarce. The circular base can be expanded to meet the needs of your crew, and like the shelter before it, players observe it from a similar perspective.

But where This War of Mine gave you a group of survivors to manage, in The Alters you “build” your crew in the most unique way—by revisiting your own past and altering the choices you made. Through the Quantum Computer, you create alternate versions of yourself—Jans who share your face, parts of your memories, and even some of your regrets. Each Alter carries different skills crucial to operating the base, but some may struggle to accept that they are not the Jan Dolski, only a Jan Dolski.

With a team made up entirely of versions of yourself—each embodying decisions you once feared or hesitated to take—The Alters presents choices that are deeply personal. Some will be difficult. Some will be irreversible. All of them, past and present, will shape the outcome of your 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 four years and it’s powered by Unreal Engine.

The Alters is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam) in 2025.