We’ve been silent — but far from idle. Half a year off the radar meant six months of iteration, overhaul, and controlled chaos. We tore down, rebuilt, tested, failed, and tried again. Today, we’re sharing a glimpse of the most atmospheric location in Step Into the Abyss. Not a full trailer — think of it more as a visual dev diary. To be fair, this was supposed to be a trailer. But, in true indie fashion, a few last-minute tweaks derailed the plan. The protagonist's legs fell through the floor again, the NPC spawn system called it a day, and propaganda banners got swept away by a scripting storm. Still — every broken build brought progress. We’ve reworked the entire logic behind world events and interactions, made the game flow sharper, faster, more alive. The dialogue system has been rebuilt from scratch — with new branches, new consequences, and a wider range of possible endings, even in the upcoming demo. Yes, the current build is unstable. Releasing it now would be a disservice to players — we won’t do that. We’ll keep pushing until this demo feels like a worthy prologue to Chris Mori’s story. But for now — welcome to Misty Hills. This is where Step Into the Abyss begins. Chris’s hometown — once a thriving metropolis, now a forsaken province on the edge of the Absorbium Empire. In this video, we show you the city’s core districts, shifts in weather and time, and the stark social contrasts of its residents. The town hall tower dominates the skyline — visible from every corner of the map, crowned by the empire’s blood-red flag, glowing defiantly in the spotlights. We’ve stared at this city dozens of times — from its earliest, barebones version (long deleted), to the one you’re seeing now. And still — it gives us chills. If you feel even half of what we feel when we look at Misty Hills — then we’re on the right track. "How naive we were. Empires are never built for the people. The police, the enforcers — they don’t serve justice. They serve the Emperor. And they punish the free and the innocent alike." © Unknown journalist

The first month of 2025 has come to an end, and we are gradually moving away from the holiday season and diving into productive work. In our New Year’s post, we already mentioned that we are transitioning to a new phase—integrating new systems to replace the old ones that were breaking the game. While this process is relatively simple in concept, it is incredibly time-consuming and monotonous. Right now, we are in the thick of it. Additionally, our artist has slightly reworked the design and appearance of the dialogue interface to better align with the overall visual style of the game. And yes, of course, we have something to share with you. Today, we’ll show you a small snippet from the opening cutscene, offering a brief glimpse into the past of our protagonist, Chris Mori. Let me emphasize once again—this is just a tiny piece of the bigger picture, meant to introduce the player to the story. At the same time, it gives a partial preview of the updated interface. One more small, not particularly significant, but still pleasant update: while part of our team was focused on integrating the new system into the game's backend, another part was working on updating our website, which will be launching in just a few days. It may not be the most critical update, but it reflects our commitment and the seriousness of our plans. «I remember the day when the Emperor's troops first marched through the city in a triumphant parade. Back then, we had no idea where the world was heading.» — Notes of an unknown journalist. #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss

Confession of failures? – This might be what some think when reading this text. 2024 has been a tough year for everyone, I believe, and soon the clock will mark its final minutes. For our team, this year was both a new beginning and a series of challenges that caused a brief pause and silence on our social media. However, it seems the time has come to dispel any doubts: the development of Step into the Abyss continues and is moving forward at full speed. The quiet period was solely due to our deep focus on the work. At the start of the year, when we were discussing the concept of the studio and the game, we set a goal: to release a demo version this year. But external circumstances first played a cruel joke on part of our team and haunted others throughout the year, making it tough and exhausting. Still, we never gave up, moving confidently toward our goal and sharing progress with you. By autumn, when the demo was supposed to launch, we had made countless changes to the project. Unfortunately, these changes initially caused setbacks, forcing us to discard parts of our work—thank you, GitHub. After overcoming these obstacles, we built a version of the game, but we encountered critical issues with the dialogue system and saves, which broke due to the important update that was meant to prepare the demo for public viewing. Surprisingly, not once during this time did we consider giving up, though the sense of disappointment was strong—we didn’t make it, didn’t succeed, and let down our small but dedicated community of supporters. After hours of discussions and debates about our next steps, we decided to take a short break to fix the problems. For several months, our team worked on the game’s backend, addressing the issues. Now, as 2024 comes to an end and Bright Moon Games approaches its anniversary, we are thrilled to announce that the problems have been resolved. All that remains is to reconnect the components, after which we will launch closed testing and later present the demo version of Step into the Abyss. This brief update explains the current state of the project. The main takeaway for us this year is that we’ve become stronger, more confident, and united, while the game moves closer to both its demo release and eventual full release. A few words about you. Thank you for your likes, comments, and subscriptions to our communities, and for every bit of feedback that helped us refine the game. Over the course of 2024, we’ve grown into an even tighter-knit team of friends who believe in their dream of creating a game and sharing a story with the world. We hope you’ve overcome the challenges of the past year and that you still love games. Our team wishes you success in the coming year and the fulfillment of even your wildest dreams. Believe in yourself, and success will find you. Happy New Year 2025! Sincerely, The Bright Moon Games Team And if you don't want to miss the demo release, add the game to your Steam wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2… #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss

Hey, it's #ScreenshotSaturday!👋 🎮Calling all #Devs #Gamedev #Indiedev #Solodev 🔥#GamesShare pics & links in comments below #stepintotheabyss

🔥And once again, it's #ScreenshotSaturday! 🎮 The best day to share your progress and showcase your amazing games. Here's what you need to do: ❤️Like this post. Repost it. 🎮Comment about your game. ⬇️Visit our Step into the Abyss page and add it to your wishlist - store.steampowered.com/app/2… #gamedev #indiegame #gamedeveloper

Today, we want to share something personal, something we never intended to show to anyone outside of our team. This slightly over 20-second clip was recorded solely as a demonstration of the mechanics for our team. That's why you see the Unity player interface, which lowers the quality, the trigger points enabled for testing, and the interface that’s not yet refined. Step into the Abyss is a deeply personal project for us, and perhaps that's exactly why we decided to show you this raw and very exposed snippet of our project. It’s an invitation into our personal space, to show you the image we see most of the day. The evidence system is a very fundamental part of the game, and it’s not fully captured in the video, as a small but crucial piece wasn’t ready at the time of recording. Players will need to spend considerable time piecing together clues, drawing conclusions, and planning their next investigation strategy. We'll be talking about the demo very soon, and if you don't want to miss its release, add the game to your wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2… #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss

#ScreenshotSaturday 🚀📷 📷Add Step into the Abyss to your wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2… 📷📷Follow each other! Show us what your games look like! 📷#StepintotheAbyss⬇️

It's #ScreenshotSaturday, let's support each other! 💬REPLY with your game 📷 📷lLIKE for better visibility I'll retweet your amazing #indiegame 📷 📷STEP INTO THE ABYSS📷store.steampowered.com/app/2… #indiedev #indiegamedev #solodev #gamedev #gaming

Today we will talk about an important aspect of our world, Absorbium. It's amusing how this topic resonates deeply with us, albeit in a different light. Faith. Any dictatorial regime places it at the core of its existence and mass control. Our world is no exception, and the empire, built on the cult of personality of the Emperor and his support, has essentially elevated him to a god-like status. Every citizen is obligated to worship the Empire and the Emperor, for only he knows everything and knows what's best for you. As we developed this world, we delved into the history and foundations of the bloodiest and most successful dictatorships. We found one key feature: any such regime is designed to destroy its subjects. To ensure they follow this plan willingly and obediently, it’s important to convince them that there's another world where everything will be fine — but first, they must serve the regime with unwavering faith. In our world, we decided not to draw a direct analogy to God to avoid offending anyone’s beliefs. Instead, we created a faith that directly commands belief and worship in the Empire and the Emperor, collecting the worst possible manifestations and events related to faith. We won’t lie — in this aspect, we were also inspired by the brilliant Warhammer universe, where developers took a similar approach. But what about us? Our team consists of people with completely different views, but we are united in one thing — eight months ago, we believed that we could, as a small team, create a game. A game that is not empty or meaningless, but something capable of telling a story and engaging the player. We are happy with our progress so far, and most importantly, we are almost ready to begin gathering followers who, like us, will believe in Step into the Abyss and will be just as invested in the development process. This will indeed happen very soon, and I believe that next week we will announce the date of our first gathering of followers. Today's text turned out a bit scattered, and we think it would be right to conclude it with one of the quotes you’ll see in the final version of our game, which perfectly reflects something often heard in our work chats: "The Empire is immortal as long as faith in it remains strong!" And if you don't want to miss the demo release, add the game to your Steam wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2… #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss

t's #ScreenshotSaturday, let's support each other! 💬REPLY with your game 🎮 🔥RETWEET this thread ❤️lLIKE for better visibility I'll retweet your amazing #indiegame 🎮 🎮STEP INTO THE ABYSS🎮: store.steampowered.com/app/2… #indiedev #indiegamedev #solodev #gamedev #gaming

We have already begun to explore the theme of propaganda and agitation in our world of Absorbium, and today we've decided to delve deeper and show how massive it can be. On the billboards, a pregnant woman and a police officer are depicted. They stand as symbols of an ideal society where every citizen is under the watchful eye of the system, and the moral police ensure the purity of ethical standards. Propaganda surrounds the residents of Misty Hills everywhere: it infiltrates news broadcasts, echoes from radios, flickers on television screens, fills the internet, newspaper pages, and house walls. There's no escaping it on the city's streets. Earlier, we showed you elements of this propaganda in the form of posters hung on the buildings throughout Misty Hills. These posters serve as a reminder that every person's step, every action, must conform to the moral standards of the dictatorship. The woman on the poster is the image of the "ideal mother," who brings new life into a world completely controlled by the state. The police officers beside her are not just guards—they symbolize the protection of the "right" future and the order imposed on everyone. But the Emperor is not satisfied with small manifestations. He strives for total control over the minds and hearts of the citizens. That's why you can find huge billboards with these same images all over Misty Hills. The city, shrouded in fog and rain, looks even darker against the backdrop of these massive calls for obedience. These billboards don’t just agitate—they suppress any form of free thought. People pass by them silently, realizing that their lives are only part of a vast machine where everyone must be loyal and predictable. The billboards themselves serve not only as visual control but also as psychological weapons. In the world of Absorbium, where every step Chris takes is monitored, these images become not just decoration but part of the system that constantly reminds you of its power. The moral police watch everyone to prevent any deviation from the norm, and the city of Misty Hills serves as the perfect stage for the manifestation of dictatorial power, where even rain and fog cannot hide you from the Emperor's gaze. And if you don't want to miss the demo release, add the game to your Steam wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2… #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss

Earlier, we showed you a small fragment of a street that featured the Fortyun family flower shop. A lot has changed since then, and after the first tests, we had to completely change the concept and look of the city, reworking it almost from scratch and rethinking what the player should feel and see while walking through the streets. The city and the streets where Chris will roam must fit into the world of Absorbium and its atmosphere. In our first version, we aimed for simplicity by creating something familiar to players, similar to what most other developers use, and we planned to use this version just for the demo. But after playing it ourselves and showing it to testers, we were disappointed. What we created didn’t work and ruined the entire idea. However, we are not ready to show the entire result yet, only a small piece you’ve already seen. Additionally, for the first time, we’re showing you one of the city’s key features—the fog, which almost constantly covers the city when it’s not raining. Misty Hills is a gloomy, foggy, and rainy city, where seeing a clear sunny sky is an exceptional case. It perfectly complements the atmosphere of a dark, dystopian world, adding to the sense of hopelessness. And now, after reworking it, the city truly reflects the description above. And if you don't want to miss the demo release, add the game to your Steam wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2… #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss

Thank you for noticing us in the company of such cool guys and their wonderful projects!🎮🔥

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Today, we decided to tell you about one of the most important institutions in our world of Absorbium – the Morality Police. This is the very body without which our dystopian world could not function. Below are a few historical notes that the player will have to find in the game. "The Morality Police was established by an imperial decree in 2020, exactly one month before the expansion across the continent began. Back then, we didn’t yet call him the Emperor, and our country maintained the illusion of a democratic state. Some of us suspected where things were heading, but simple human naivety, faith in the best, and the propaganda machine denied everything. By the time we realized the truth, it was too late – war had engulfed the continent, and the Morality Police had gained enough power to destroy all dissenters." – Unknown journalist, excerpt from the newspaper "My Struggle," dated 08.09.2023. "It has been a year since our brave Morality Police began their work. During this year, they have prevented numerous terrorist attacks and punished hundreds of dissenters—those who threatened our statehood and the Emperor's authority. The head of the Morality Police, in an interview with our journalist, asked to remind everyone that all their work is aimed at protecting ordinary citizens. Every day, hundreds of Morality Police officers risk their lives so that we can sleep peacefully. Glory to the Emperor!" - Excerpt from the newspaper "Imperial Grandeur," dated 03.21.2021 "They came for him at night, asking him persistently about some post in the social network 'Law'. He kept shouting that it was true, that he had just written what he thought and what was real. For three hours, I heard blows and screams – they were torturing them. Then, everything went silent, complete silence with no sound. I think it's needless to say that I never saw them again." – Transcript of a radio broadcast from the pirate radio station "Free Citizen." "No one ever doubted that the old cartilage who loves to call himself by the menacing title of Emperor created the Morality Police solely to protect his fragile reputation. They never protected anyone except the Emperor and his interests. Their methods were primitive – torture, beatings, abductions, murders, blackmail. My friends, freedom-loving people, tried to resist, but they were foolish and didn't want to fight for real – just angry posts and peaceful protests – they were doomed to fail. They were simply caught one by one and killed. Witnesses said they didn’t shy away from torturing children to extract retractions and false statements of support for the Emperor." – Note from an "Unknown Publicist." In Step into the Abyss, as with most of the rules and aspects, we will only outline the basics; the details you will have to discover on your own. By finding and studying small fragments of the history that has happened and continues to unfold in the world of Absorbium, you, as a player, should experience a sense of involvement akin to reality, where you have to learn about events unfolding every day. However, this won’t be mandatory, and you will be able to complete the game without delving into its history. And if you don't want to miss the demo release, add the game to your Steam wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2… #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss

End of the week - let's celebrate #FollowFriday - write in the comments ⬇️ and we again encourage you to look at one of the arts for our Step into the Abyss, the page of which you can find on #Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/2… Well, don’t forget to show off your wonderful game! ❤️Like - 🔁Retweet - 👉Subscribe #IndieDevs #GameDev #Gaming #StepIntoTheAbyss

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In Step into the Abyss, we aim to create a living city that effectively reflects the lives of people under a dictatorship. On the streets of Misty Hills, players will encounter a wide variety of people, and by "variety," we mean they can represent different professions, ages, social statuses, and other aspects of life. Additionally, it’s important to realize that these people live in a dystopia, where the class divide is enormous. store.steampowered.com/app/2… #StepIntoTheAbyss #games #indiedeveloper #indiegamedev #gamedev #gameDeveloper #screenshotsaturday #gamedevelopment #game #dev #devstepintotheabyss