Going North
Daylight at the edge of the Cut: a plank bridge spans the molten floor, a river pours into it as a wide waterfall, a station stands on the far side, and the mountain's plume rises behind.

Multiplayer survival · playable prototype

Going North

Walk north to a volcano, fill a ladle of molten metal, and carry it back across the trench.

While you carry it, everyone can see roughly where you are. Everyone you meet is another player with no name over their head, and the zombies hunt by sound.

Join a playtest → How a run goes →
Head north
From the game

Recorded in the running game.

Not edited, only compressed to fit on this page.

Day to night over the CutIn-engine
A pack at night, up closeIn-engine
A flight along the Cut by dayIn-engine

Short cuts

Edited from the same footage. Sound on.

Don't fall in the Cut
The run in 20 seconds
They hunt by sound
Pick 1 of 3
Don't wake the spider
Every weapon is different
The idea

No names, no map markers, and zombies that hunt by sound.

01 · THE PEOPLE

Every stranger is a real player.

No name over their head, no team colour, no map marker. Offer a handshake and, if they accept within three seconds, you're allies until the match ends and only you can see their name. Everyone else stays anonymous.

Their eyes tell you a little.

DarkNothing yet
RedA fresh kill
BlueShook hands
PurpleBoth at once
02 · THE ZOMBIES

They see poorly and hear everything.

A ring on the ground shows how far your noise carries. It shrinks when you crouch, grows when you sprint, and grows again at night. Your microphone counts too.

A yell gathers a group, warns a stranger, or sends the zombies toward someone. Text chat reaches 30 m and makes no sound.

How noise works →
03 · THE LADLE

Fill it, and everyone knows where you are.

Fill a ladle of molten metal at the volcano and every player gets your rough position, updated every two seconds. It only counts once you carry it south across the trench, back through everything you crossed on the way up.

Going north is the easy part.

The way home →
One frame from above in daylight: meadow and a river in front, the Cut with its waterfalls and bridges on the right, the dry country beyond, and the mountain with its plume.

One screenshot, unedited

Everything you can see, you have to walk.

The meadow, the desert and the volcano are one continuous world, with no loading screens and no fast travel. A winning run walks it both ways.

A river winding through green meadow past a station and its banners, the dry country beyond, and the mountain's plume on the horizon.
STAGE ONE
The greenYour first bow, and maybe your first ally.
 A ridge of sand with a lone cactus in daylight, pine forest and a winding river beyond it, and the mountain behind.
STAGE TWO
The dryOpen dunes. Anyone can see you coming.
 Pine forest on a snowy slope, white mountains behind.
STAGE THREE
The coldSnow and pale ground. You're easy to spot.
 Dark rock ridges and crags at dusk, almost no light left.
STAGE FOUR
The darkThe most zombies. Where most runs end.
 The mountain at night from above, its plume lit orange, with the glowing Cut running across the land below it.
STAGE FIVE
The volcanoEveryone still alive heads for the same crater.
Night from above: a lake, the glowing Cut, and the white lamp beams of lit stations across the land, under the mountain's plume and a crescent moon.

After dark

Some nights you don't travel at all.

At night you can't see far and zombies hear further. Travel by day, and spend the night at a safe spot you lit: refill your arrows, spend a level. Other players come to lit lamps too. You lit it, but you don't own it.

Safe spots, and what waits outside →

One match

North with nothing, south with everyone watching.

  • A match is 30 to 60 minutes.Join any time. Runs are timed from when you joined, so late joiners can still place.
  • Dying sets you back.You lose your gear and the souls you carry, and respawn at a safe spot you already lit, with the augments you had there. How far you push between safe spots is the gamble.
  • Carry it across the trench and the win is yours.Your name goes on a leaderboard that outlasts the match. The first delivery starts a ten-minute timer for everyone else.
  • Then everyone votes on the next map.Two changes, like a longer run, more safe spots or wider rivers, and a new world is generated.

The whole run, stage by stage →

One round of Going North A loop. The left side runs north from the trench through five biomes, past lamps you light on the way. At the top you fill a ladle at the volcano. The right side runs back south, with every player able to see you. Crossing the trench scores the run and you go again. Dying puts you back at a lamp you already lit. THE VOLCANO THE DARK THE COLD THE DRY THE GREEN THE TRENCH NORTH · BUILD YOUR RUN FILL THE LADLE SOUTH · SEEN BY EVERYONE DIE · RESPAWN SOUTH FEWER AUGMENTS SCORED · GO AGAIN AS MANY RUNS AS THE MATCH ALLOWS
One run, start to finish.
Augments

You get stronger on the way north.

Chests and level-ups offer you augments to choose from, and you keep one. Offers are rolled per player, so two people at the same chest see different choices. Taking the same augment again pays more each time, so it pays to specialise. Some help other players: a whistle that heals everyone near you, a ward of extra health on an ally, or reviving someone who is down.

108 augments, 29 of them rare, from the game's own tableOpen the full table →

Every body also brings two traits, and you choose a third: small rules like swimming faster or a wider parry. See every trait.

Latest build

Beta 14 is out

Every player now wears a cape with real cloth physics, with rarer looks earned by playing. Whistles and yells grew into six augment trees with their own effects. The herd is three times bigger, up to 600 zombies per player, and the game stutters less. v0.14.1 fixes zombies appearing on top of players, reworks Shade into a body of ink, heals you on a level up and rebuilds the countryside.

Download v0.14.1 macOS 399 MB Windows 374 MB Release on GitHub →
Read the changelog →
Status
Playable prototype · Beta 14
A match
30–60 min · join any time
Platforms
Windows · macOS (Apple Silicon)
The world
Procedural · new every match · no loading screens
Players
One shared world, strangers in it
Voice
Proximity mic · zombies hear it
Arsenal
Bow, sword, shield · no guns
Winning
Permanent leaderboard place

Somebody is going to get one home.
It may as well be you.

Playtests run through Discord.

Join a playtest →

"It set. That one's yours."THE NARRATOR, WHEN YOU GET ONE HOME