Frozenbyte's new stealth game demo is also a pricing contest

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Trine developer Frozenbyte revealed its next project, Shadwen, a few months ago, with a trailer, some screens, and a promise that it would take the stealth genre “back to its roots.” Today the studio announced the release of a “sneak peek demo,” and a pretty good reason to give it a try: The more that it's played over the next five days, the lower the price of the full game will be when it comes out.

The exact formula is a closely-guarded secret, but the short version is that as the global community score goes up, the launch price goes down. Currently, the community score is 55,665, and the launch price is sitting at $34.7242809, which I expect will be rounded appropriately when the time comes. You can play as much as you want to push down the price, and Frozenbyte retains the right to push it back up if it turns out that shenanigans were afoot at any time during the demo period. No cheating, please.

There is a limit to how low the price can go (and it's not "free," in case you're curious), but "there's quite a way to go still from the starting $35," a Frozenbyte rep said. "We hope it goes pretty low because that would mean a lot of people are interested in the game!"

The demo is available “for a limited time” on Steam, GOG, and Humble, while the contest is live now and runs until February 29. That may or may not represent the availability window of the demo, Frozenbyte wasn't entirely clear on that, but either way Shadwen itself is expected to be out later this year. More information, about the game and the contest, are up at shadwen.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.