"Until Then" is a recently announced narrative-driven game developed by indie Filipino developers. Read on to learn more about its story, gameplay, and where you can play its demo!
Explore High School in the Philippines in "Until Then"
What and Where is "Until Then?"
A Filipino indie game entitled "Until Then" has just been announced by PlayStation two days ago. The developers, Polychroma Games, see it as "a love letter to the young in the Philippines."
It will be coming to the PlayStation 5 and Steam. It is currently part of the Steam Next Fest event, wherein users will be able to download and play a demo of the game until the event ends on February 12, 2024. If the game catches your eye, make sure to play it on Steam Until Then!
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 Playstation |
Enter High School and Heal From Your Trauma
Set in the fictional cities of Bonifacio and Liamson based in the Philippines, it will follow high-school student Mark Borja as he struggles in school while trying to heal from past trauma. Mark, along with his friends, try their best to continue his day-to-day life after a world wrought with a disaster, where they wish to go back to how things were before.
They enter a new fresh year of high school filled with lectures, tests, homework, deadlines, piano practice, and of course, school drama. It all feels like the "new normal" will finally revert back to just "normal," filled with regular highschool difficulties and growing teenage insecurities, right until "a fateful meeting sets off a chain reaction, upending Mark’s life. People disappear, and memories prove unreliable."
Mark and his friends will try their best to investigate and unravel the mysteries before time proves too late; but Until Then, they still have homework to do.
Travel to and Experience Philippine-Inspired Locations and Minigames
It looks to mainly be a slice-of-life side-scrolling visual novel that will heavily incorporate the use of social media and social interaction. It makes use of a beautiful blend of 3D landscape environments depicting Philippine-inspired locales, with “hand-pixeled” sprites and animation that breathe life into the inhabitants.
There will be plenty of exploration that ranges from the confines of Mark’s room, to walking in the streets, to waiting in the train station and inside crowded trains, and most importantly, school classrooms, courtyards, and hallways.
The game will also feature several minigames, such as piano practice or "guess where the ball is" cup game, to minigames inspired by Filipino culture such as "Tusok-tusok" (poke-poke) fishball, where people buying street food use their sticks to poke and retrieve their own fishballs submerged in grease.
