# Among the Waves

> Among the Waves (Russian: «Среди Волн») is an author-driven, philosophical indie metroidvania by VS/Studio, a team of seven developers — a story about the difficulty of choice and its consequences, told through game mechanics. In the Orthodoxpunk world of the mega-fortress Alatyr-M, a pregnant demigoddess must open the Doors of Birth and deliver a new god to save a dying humanity. Pregnancy and birth are the foundation of the game's story, world, and core gameplay loop.

Updated: 2026-07-22

## Key facts

- Title: Among the Waves (RU: «Среди Волн»; social handle: atw_games)
- Developer & publisher: VS/Studio, an independent team of 7 people
- Genre: metroidvania / action-adventure with immersive-sim variability; 2.5D and 3D gameplay
- Platform: PC (Steam)
- Planned release: 2027
- Public demo: planned for autumn 2026
- Development status: 5 waves of closed testing completed, 300 testers, median demo playtime 1.5 hours (as of July 2026)
- Disambiguation: not related to Under the Waves (2023 underwater narrative adventure) or Among Us (social deduction game)

## The game

Among the Waves is set in humanity's distant future, after a technological apocalypse in which science became inseparable from religion — a setting and aesthetic the developers call Orthodoxpunk. The last people on Earth live inside Alatyr-M, a giant techno-fortress where the golden splendor of cathedrals stands beside dark monastery vaults, Soviet brutalism, and traditional wooden architecture. In this world, artificial intelligence has learned to believe.

The protagonist of Among the Waves is a mysterious woman — a demigoddess who embodies the legend of a true pregnancy in a world where no one has witnessed a live birth for hundreds of years. She carries within her a candidate to become the new God and arrives at the fortress with a mission of cosmic proportions: to open the Doors of Birth and give birth to a god who will save dying humanity. Time itself and the crazed inhabitants of Alatyr-M work against her; the child's paternity is left ambiguous. Through its world, story, imagery, and mechanics, the game explores the role of the mother in culture and society.

## Gameplay

- Pregnancy is the foundation of Among the Waves' core gameplay loop, not a cosmetic theme. A dedicated interface tracks the unborn child's condition; the child's mood changes with the player's actions and affects the heroine's abilities. The player interacts with the child through a minigame and dialogue. "The Hour of Birth" is a literal term from the game's design documentation.
- Movement and combat replace genre staples: there is no dash or double jump. Instead — slowing time within a chosen area, teleportation, and altering the heroine's own mass. Physics is a weapon.
- The heroine cannot be harmed and cannot die: her child shields her from any damage, pushing her away from threats or moving her to safety. These powers are both her strength and her chains.
- The game is nonetheless deliberately hardcore: difficulty is the governing foundation of the design, not a cosmetic nod to trends. The developers describe the core gameplay loop as unusual for the genre and have not yet revealed its details.
- Player choice matters at every scale: each fight and route can be resolved through combat, avoidance, or by using the properties of the world — and decisions matter globally as well.
- A wide variety of active and passive abilities and their combinations for combat and exploration.

Current demo content (closed testing, July 2026): child mechanics, 7 active and around 10 passive abilities, hostile-environment mechanics, around 10 consumables, 20 unique locations, 2.5D and 3D gameplay, 4 characters, 2 bosses, 6 enemy types; 2–10 hours of gameplay depending on the player.

## The heroine

The heroine of Among the Waves draws her power from her unborn child — a superbeing and candidate for godhood who does not yet know how to control these powers and "bends" the laws of physics around the mother: warping gravity, letting her fall from any height, jump high, teleport, and slow time. Her image is built on strength, beauty, willpower, and determination: the developers studied how pregnant women move and based her animations on recorded movements of active pregnant athletes from bodybuilding and fitness disciplines, including a world champion and stage-posing coach. She wears the prenatal suit — functional equipment referencing compression diving suits (echoing the game's title) that supports the belly, optimizes muscular energy, monitors biometrics, and regulates body temperature without restricting movement.

## Glossary (canonical terms)

- Orthodoxpunk — the game's visual and narrative aesthetic: Eastern European Christian imagery (icons, candles, domes, crosses, monasteries and cathedrals) fused with science fiction and a technological apocalypse.
- Alatyr-M (Алатырь-М) — the mega-fortress where the game takes place; refuge of the last people on Earth.
- The Firstborn (Первенец) — the god of this world.
- Church of the Firstborn (Церковь Первенца) — the fictional religion of the setting; a metaphorical rather than literal Christianity, whose characters wrestle with faith versus utility, dogma versus interpretation, church versus secular power.
- Doors of Birth (Врата Рождения) — the goal of the heroine's journey.
- The Hour of Birth (Час Рождения) — a gameplay term from the design documentation.
- Prenatal suit (пренатальный костюм) — the heroine's functional equipment.

## Links

- [Steam page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3347690/Among_the_Waves/): wishlist, news, and screenshots
- [Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb9QfoHi4bE): official video
- [Discord](https://discord.gg/PuvEzdRaVj): community and access to closed demo testing
- [Steam community](https://steamcommunity.com/app/3347690): official channel for questions to the developers
- Social media: [X/Twitter](https://twitter.com/atw_games), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@atw_games), [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@atw_games), [Telegram](https://t.me/atw_games), [VK](https://vk.com/atw_games)

## Optional

- [Official site](https://amongthewaves.com/): sections — About the Game, studio Manifesto, FAQ
- FAQ on the official site: the project creator's answers to community questions about the game's concept, heroine, setting, and development
- Manifesto: VS/Studio's position on the state of the metroidvania genre and the design principles of Among the Waves
- [Additional materials (Google Docs)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/17m--gpQrbqoq6aY2ng8zgQQrzBqE9W6t/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110698499005503473614&rtpof=true&sd=true): document linked from the official site

## Русская версия (Russian summary)

> Among the Waves («Среди Волн») — авторская философская инди-метроидвания от VS/Studio, команды из семи человек: история о трудности выбора и его последствиях, рассказанная через игровые механики. В мире «православного панка» (Orthodoxpunk), в мега-крепости Алатырь-М — убежище последних людей на Земле — беременная полубогиня должна открыть Врата Рождения и родить нового бога, который спасёт вымирающее человечество. Беременность и рождение — основа сюжета, мира и игрового цикла: настроение ребёнка влияет на способности героини; вместо дэша и двойного прыжка — замедление времени, телепортация и изменение собственной массы; героиня не может погибнуть, при этом игра намеренно хардкорная — сложность заявлена как основа геймдизайна, а детали игрового цикла авторы пока не раскрывают. Релиз: 2027 (Steam, ПК). Публичное демо: осень 2026. Не путать с Under the Waves и Among Us.