Demo Announcement, and details about the game

Hi!

The year is quickly coming to an end, and I wanted to take a minute to go more in depth about what you can expect from Tides of Tethys. So on that note, here's a lengthy post!

-The Kingdom, prospering eons ago before the wars

First and foremost, an announcement - Even though we were initially aiming for Q4, I made the decision to move the game to 2025. This is so the two of us can spend time on polish and fixing bugs, bringing important key features to the game before our first early access, as well as building more wishlists. We're currently aiming to take part in Steam Fest on February 24th, so if you want to try the game, that'll be your first chance to do so, and play the Demo. Mark your calendars!

-An early concept of a Knight stumbling on an unknown creature

With that out of the way, what's the game about? At the core, Tides of Tethys is a roguelite simulation game, with elements of RTS and city building.

You're an expedition overseer, leading Knights to retrieve technologies and resources, wasted from past generations waging wars against their own kind for centuries, in order to save yourself from extinction, by rebuilding the Kingdom.

-The first moment of an expedition, where the mothership drops Knights in an unexplored trench

Let's unpack a few things here. What do we mean by"roguelite"?. The game is based around expeditions, that are layered with a variety of randomization. Randomly generated tiles, Knights, enemies, local and global events, Artifacts, weather, as well as region-based thematics are things you can expect, making sure that no two expeditions are ever the same.

And of course, in true roguelite fashion, you do still get to unlock stuff and progress over time. Even though you might lose an expedition, you'll still have new tools to help you out every time you either succeed, or meet your demise.

Our randomization systems at play, ensuring no two expeditions are the same.

Which brings us to rebuilding your kingdom! The main goal of expeditions is to retrieve ARTIFACTS. Artifacts are lost technologies, that you can bring back to your kingdom to rebuild, and unlock new technology. They're basically your main currency, as a player. You might want to unlock the Hangars to get access to vehicles, or maybe you'll want to unlock Turbines, in order to generate power when you're too deep for the sun to reach. Or maybe you'll want to unlock new rituals to give you buffs during your expedition.

-An outpost relying on turbines to generate power, in the dark

Speaking of Artifacts, these grow more challenging over time. What'll start as harmless artifacts that you just need to find, will slowly turn into globally affecting challenges, like the EMP generator, constantly putting power stress on your outposts, or the corrupted black boxes, making your knights see horrors of the past. Artifacts will also change based on which region and how deep you are.

-A corrupted black box artifact, causing Knights to see horrors of the past

Whether you have a lot of things unlocked or you're just starting, you'll also be able to find Relics while you explore. Think of Relics as loot boxes, that reward your Knights with tools to survive expeditions. With Knights being randomly generated, and having their own sets of backstories, stats and passives, Relics allow you to customize Knights so they can fit within specific roles depending on your needs. For instance, you might find an upgraded oxygen tank and lenses, which, paired with one of your knights with inherent fast walk speed, turns them into a great dedicated explorer.

-A Knight equipped with upgraded oxygen tanks, a sonar, and a welding torch.

Expeditions are all based around 5 depths- starting in the shallower parts of a region, leading to the culmination of what that region has to offer at depth 5. Each depth, you can choose when to extract. Too difficult to complete the depth you're at? Extract back to your kingdom, at the cost of losing 50% of your spoils. Unlock a few goodies, and try again! Managed to reach the Artifact? Time to call the mothership, and decide which of your buildings and Knights to bring to the next depth. Fully finished an expedition? Time to up the ante, and explore the next region.

-Knights awaiting for an extraction after a successful Artifact retrieval

Our goal with the game, is to give you tools to play the way you want to play. Whether that focusing on your outpost and slowly expanding, not relying on luck, or if you prefer to micro your Knights to search for oxygen geysers and quickly explore without needing to build as many tethers, is up to you. Or maybe, you feel like you're getting killed by monsters too often, in which case you might want to play as House Dayl, a House focused on combat proficiencies and slow expansion.

If you're like me, you also might love skins. As I just mentioned, you can play as different Houses, which are gated behind specific challenges. On top of having a distinct playstyle, they each come with different colors for their buildings. And of course, you also might want to visit the Armorer to unlock helmets, materials or even just spotlight colors to customize your Knights. -Knights of house Kroissan, wearing a variety of cosmetics, as well as tools, standing next to a vehicle.

The game is also built with streaming in mind! If you love streaming, you'll be able to connect your twitch chat with in-game events, letting your viewers either help you or try to take you down by summoning a variety of enemies, events, or rewards. (Nothing like spawning a few mines and tentacles to mess with somebody).

Finally, don't forget to wishlist the game now! This is the absolute best way you can help us to make this game as good as it can be, as wishlists give us more visibility on Steam, and helps us grow our community. And on the topic of community, you can also join our discord at this link : Discord

Thank you for reading this far, and we can't wait to show you what the depths of Tethys have to offer, very soon!