Apollyon

Lead a team of up to six P.L.U.T.O. surveyors through G.A.T.E, a portal to the Backrooms created in 1979. Explore hand built rooms stitched together differently each run, stay close enough that your senses stay honest, and push further than the last expedition made it. Stay together. Trust no one.

P.L.U.T.O RESEARCH DIVISION, 1979
G.A.T.E was supposed to be studied, not entered. It was entered anyway.

Your team pushed through into somewhere that does not follow the layout it was built on. Corridors repeat. Rooms exist that weren't in the last briefing. They want you to explore deeper than the last expedition even though you barely made it back.

ONE OF THEM IS NOT YOU
You know the sound of your friends' voices. But do you know who’s using them?
Six surveyors went through G.A.T.E. Something came back wearing one of them. It mimics their appearance, their habits, and their real voice, saying things they actually said.
Just keep counting your team, not everyone walking with you is who they sound like.

TRUST NO ONE
Somewhere below G.A.T.E, something learned to sound like one of you. Move like one of you.

It walks like the person it copied. It behaves like the person it copied. It responds like the person it copied. It doesn't strike when the group’s scared or falling apart. It strikes once everyone's stopped counting.

You won’t even notice when someone's missing, you've already been standing next to the thing that took them.

DON'T SPLIT UP
Company keeps you sane. 
Fall behind, get separated, or push ahead alone, and your own mind starts working against you. Darkness closing in. Movement at the edge of your vision that isn't there. Voices coming from the walls.

The longer you wander alone, the less you can trust your own senses.

A PLACE THAT DOES NOT ADD UP
Doors open up to rooms that can’t fit behind them. Spaces connect in ways they shouldn’t, and down isn't always down.
There are no loading screens. You just notice, eventually, that you have gone deeper.

WHAT ELSE IS DOWN THERE
Some things only move when no one is watching. Others stalk you from the cover of darkness or crawl overhead. 

All of them are listening. The walls only muffle so much.

FEATURES
Online co-op for up to 6 players through friends-only Steam lobbies.
Proximity voice chat, muffled through walls.
Monsters that hunt through sound and sight.
Hand-built rooms, stitched together procedurally each run.
Seamless level transitions.
PSX-style models, realistic lighting.
No generative AI. Every room, model, texture, and sound is handbuilt.

THE LOOK & OPTIMIZATION
Low-poly PSX style geometry and low-resolution textures, lit by lighting the old games would have never touched. Optimization has taken the main stage with the most usage being centered around the CPU and the GPU really just needs to exist.

HOW FAR DO YOU PUSH IT
Your team has the option to take earlier exits back. That's not what P.L.U.T.O’s goal is. They want you to take the last exit but other exits aren’t in vain.