Dead Air: Act I is playable, the first private playtest, and every test date so far
Two days ago we announced Dead Air (working title). Since then its first act has gone from nothing to a complete internal build, and a first tester outside the studio is playing it now.
Act I, “Graveyard Shift”
The first internal build, V1, was finished on 27 September 2026. It is the whole first act of the campaign:
- a prologue, six maps, a secret seventh map, and the Foreman, the boss of the paper mill
- guns plus three melee weapons with combos and a parry
- double jump, air dash, mantling, vents and power-line ziplines, with more than one route through every map
- a roguelite layer inside the campaign: seeded runs, Frequencies that change how you play, a Night Shift mode, and upgrades for your broadcast booth
Before we called it done, the packaged build was played from the main menu through the ending and the credits.
V1.1 and the first private playtest
V1.1, an internal test build, followed on 28 September 2026. It checks the hands and movement on every weapon and every map, dresses the maps with real building kits and props, mixes in the music and voice, and adds an in-game feedback form. On the same day it went to our first playtester outside the studio, privately. Their reports go straight from that form into our issue tracker.
What V1.2 fixes
V1.2 is being built now, from what came out of playing V1.1:
- the materials pass is being finished, so no surface is left bare
- choppy audio gets fixed
- a higher default mouse sensitivity, and a finer slider
- motion that reads smoothly at speed: frame pacing, a motion blur setting and camera smoothing
- a performance pass aiming for 90+ fps on Steam Deck, with a Deck graphics preset and the Windows build running under Proton
The same private tester gets V1.2 when it is ready. It has no date yet.
A Nordic sound, for both games
The soundtracks and voices of both games are moving to a dark Viking sound: war drums, folk and hip-hop. The stories do not change. Dead Air goes first, and The Dark Is Sleepless is following.
Further out
- Better monsters, a more Viking hero: much higher-quality enemy models, and a more Viking look for Rattle’s face on the HUD.
- V2, a new map every run: maps generated from the run’s seed. The V1 levels are already built in modular pieces with this in mind.
- A playable for supporters: once the private playtests say it plays well, supporters get it first.
None of these has a date yet.
Every build and test so far
Dead Air (working title)
- 26 Sept 2026: concept and design
- 27 Sept 2026: V1, Act I (internal build)
- 28 Sept 2026: V1.1 (internal test build)
- 28 Sept 2026: first outside playtest begins (private)
- V1.2: in progress, date TBA
The Dark Is Sleepless
- 10 Sept 2026: v1, the Vesper slice (internal build)
- 11 Sept 2026: v1.1, lobby, launcher, Steam and standalone (internal build)
- 12 Sept 2026: v1.2, Quorra, the rule and the map (internal build)
- 16 Sept 2026: alpha 0.1.1, the first build for supporters
- 18 Sept 2026: first supporter playtest reports
- 19 Sept 2026: alpha 0.1.2, the playtest fixes
- Alpha 0.1.3: in progress, target Q4 2026
- 30 May 2029: public pre-alpha (the countdown on the home page)
The whole picture is on the roadmap, and Dead Air’s own page shows where it stands.
Dead Air is a working title, and the name may change before release.