They Breathe Anew

Five years on from its Steam release, They Breathe is still dear to our hearts. Without giving away too much, it does things in its 30 minute runtime that no other game has done, probably things no game will ever do again. To honor those things, The Working Parts have been preparing a remaster over the past year, rebuilt from the ground up in Unity and featuring scores of tweaks and improvements that we hope warrant a return trip to the bottom. The remaster is headed for new platforms like Mac, iOS and Android, but for this Environment Day we are kicking things off where it all started, featuring the new version as a totally free update to the Steam game on Windows! You can still choose to launch the Classic version when you start the game, but then you'll miss out on all of the below. Okay, let's see if we can do this without spoilers...

• Updated artwork, effects and ”3D” lighting for a slicker and more chilling look

• Retooled backgrounds and foregrounds

• The game can be played entirely with the mouse

• Support for vertical screens (looks so good we actually made this the default on phones)

• Largely reworked progression of creature encounters

• Major changes to behaviour of ”green” creatures, creating fresh gameplay situations

• New effects clarifying the electric nature of certain creatures

• New effects that make it much easier to gauge creatures' oxygen levels

• Reworked frog behaviours to make saving them fairer (but still not necessarily a realistic undertaking...)

• Reworked control restrictions when player oxygen runs out – more in line with other frogs

• Tiny bubbles from the screen edge give away the position of upcoming air bubbles, making planning easier

• Overly flashy new intro screen

• We do a small new thing with legs

• Tweens, tweens, tweens – the remaster is all about soft, smooth movement, and the sudden pops that marred the original's animation are a thing of the past

• Overall tweaks of random factors that you'll never notice, but greatly reduce the risk of boring, confusing and overly unfair things happening. As a result, the difficulty level is more consistent, and generally a bit easier.

• Plus tons of other minor surprises

See it in action in the new trailer here. If you've descended into the forest before, we hope you'll take this free opportunity to see this old gem in a new light. And as always, take care to let the newcomers discover the world beneath the surface for themselves. If this is your first time making the plunge, then, well... The Working Parts wish you good luck!