While this isn’t the big reveal—that’s coming next month—it’s what I’d call a soft reveal, a nod to our loyal fans who deserve the first look at what we’re building.
First, the title: Project Thea. After much debate, we settled on a name that bridges the past and future. While this game takes bold steps away from the original Thea series, it remains deeply rooted in its world’s rich history and dark lore—a fresh start that honors its legacy.
In this first dev blog, I’ll give an overview of the game, so those outside our awesome Discord community (join us by clicking the icon on top of the page!) can catch up on what we’ve been working on.
The Genre
As always with Thea, this is a problematic topic to pin down! But here it goes, our short description – A dark strategy-survival RPG blending retro-futuristic urban fantasy with Slavic folklore. Rebuild your colony, explore the wastelands and engage in strategic card-based combat in this story-rich, roguelite adventure. Featuring branching narratives, character progression, single player or co-op for 2 players.
The Story
You awaken from magi-cryo sleep to a world in ruins. They call you one of the Alloy Twins, but your memories are shattered. Who is this twin of yours, and why do you not remember them? How did you end up in the cryo-pod? One thing is clear—the colony’s generator is failing, and you’re one of the few capable of retrieving the energy shards to keep it alive. Failure is not an option.
As you journey through this retro-futuristic urban-fantasy world, your choices will shape the story. From reimagined Slavic folklore creatures like Baba Yaga—now an entrepreneur running an ice cream van—to the Tooth Fairy pivoting to dentistry, and Woj-Tec 001, the cybernetic bear founder of UBear courier services, Project Thea is a world brimming with danger, humor, and mystery.
Your story is just beginning. Are you ready to uncover the secrets of Thea?
The World
For those familiar with our franchise, Thea will be a familiar world, but one that has undergone centuries of change. The original games, Thea: The Awakening and Thea 2: The Shattering, were set far in the past, in a classic dark fantasy era, while Project Thea thrusts the player into the far future, where mankind dominated the world and tried their best to quell all other factions—until, inevitably, history repeated itself and apocalypse struck!
The apocalyptic event, referred to as the Fall, turned Thea into a desolate wasteland filled with Slavic demons and non-human clans, all seeking their revenge on the last remnant of the old civilisation: the Project Thea.
The Hero/Heroes
At the heart of the game lies your hero. Whether you’re playing solo or in 2-player co-op, you’ll create a unique character to lead the charge. Choose their heritage as an alloy, class, appearance, and gender. As the story unfolds, your hero will gain experience, uncover powerful items, and craft useful gadgets and yummy, slavic foods to boost their morale. They’ll also acquire new skills and abilities, which you’ll rely on in the card-based challenges and battles for survival in Thea.
The hero will lead their party of experts and minions into the wastelands. The hero’s Leadership stat determines how many party members they can take, and the party’s stats and abilities will determine their strength for both combat and other challenges. This strength, in turn, will aid the heroes in navigating the many unexpected narrative events that shape your story.
The Project
Your settelment, codenamed Project Thea, is humanity’s—and coseen non-humanity’s…—last hope, and its survival rests in your hands. Keeping the Project running is just as critical as protecting your hero. Fail to safeguard it, and mankind’s future crumbles alongside it.
The Project serves as your hub, where you can resupply, sell off scavenged goods, or recruit new allies to join your party. It’s also a place to meet key NPCs and follow their personal questlines. By collecting STLs (Sigil-Transfer Lattices) for the 3MD Printforge, you’ll unlock new structures to expand your settlment and strengthen its defences. Above all, it’s where you deliver the crucial energy shards that keep the generator—and the people—alive.
The Big, Bad World
When your party is ready, it’s time to brave the wastelands, discover valuable resources, and learn what’s been happening outside the safety of your Project’s walls. The world outside is vast and treacherous, divided into hex-based zones. Each zone contains Points of Interest (POI) to explore, offering a range of rewards like rare items, crafting materials, and the all-important energy shards needed to keep the Project running. And of course, every such POI will present you not only with enemies but also with branching events that can provide surprising solutions and story hooks. Exploration is a key aspect of the game. The further you venture from the Project, the more dangerous the areas you’ll explore, so you’ll have to weigh the pros and cons of risk versus reward.
As you travel, you’ll need to carefully manage your supplies and rest to ensure you have the strength to explore further. While camping, you can regroup, recover movement points, replenish your deck, heal the wounded, and even prepare some good old Slavic comfort food—like a hearty pot of bigos, a dish sure to lift your party’s spirits before the next leg of the journey.
Card-Based Battles and Skill Challenges
Again, those familiar with our Thea games will not be surprised to learn we’ve leaned towards card game mechanics to resolve challenges in Project Thea.
In your exploration, challenges await at every turn. Combat encounters pit your party against foes in tactical, turn-based card battles. Your hero and NPC allies each contribute their unique abilities, allowing you to craft strategies and outwit your enemies. Your hero will always be the main character in any battle, their domain, alliance, and skills determining the power and flavour of your entire deck. Your party will be composed of Experts and Minions, each adding their own strengths to the team.
Not every challenge is a fight—some are locked doors, negotiations, magical rituals, or other obstacles requiring a Skill Challenge. These encounters rely on your party’s talents and skills and, like battles, are resolved using your card deck and modifiers. Whether it’s unraveling a magical riddle or tackling a social conundrum, you’ll need to use every tool at your disposal to succeed.
The deck-building and card battler mechanic will obviously be key to the game, and in the coming months, I’ll do my best to talk about it in greater detail.
So, that’s it for now. Until the bunker opens its doors to the world…