From Press Release:
OCTOBER 1, 2026 – Six years in the making, ALTER-BOY’s short-form 2.5D tactical action horror shooter is out now with solo play, couch co-op, online co-op through Steam Remote Play Together, and launch week pricing costs merely a box of donuts.
OZARK 1.0 is out now on Steam. After more than six years of development, three-person studio ALTER-BOY has just shadow dropped its dark, story-driven 2.5D tactical action horror game during Insider Gaming’s 28 Games Later: A Horror Showcase. The horror showcase is airing now, with OZARK’s Out Now reveal marking the game’s immediate launch on Steam. The show brings together horror and suspense games from teams of all sizes.
DualShockers contributor Lucas Santos on OZARK’s launch price:
“The Next Big Horror Shooter Will Cost the Same as a Box of Donuts”WHAT IS OZARK?
OZARK is a dark, story-driven 2.5D tactical action horror shooter set in the remote mountains of Northern Canada. After a crash landing, players enter a seemingly abandoned facility while searching for a missing signal, only to uncover macabre human experimentation and something far worse beneath the surface.
Combat is built around movement, target selection, environmental hazards, and dangerous close-range encounters. The side-scrolling presentation still gives players freedom on the Z axis, creating a more flexible 2.5D combat space than a traditional left-to-right action game.
BUILT WITH “COUCH CO-OP” IN MIND
OZARK was designed from the beginning with two-player co-op as a core part of the experience. Fight through encounters together, cover each other during firefights, manage threats from multiple directions, and descend into the facility as a team.
Using Steam Remote Play Together, ONLY ONE PLAYER needs to own OZARK. The host launches the game and invites a friend through Steam, allowing both players to play together online through the same shared-screen experience.
THE AFTER DARK BUNDLE: OZARK + BLACKWOOD
OZARK is also teaming up with the BLACKWOOD dev team and InfernoZilla for the After Dark Bundle, a Steam bundle launching alongside OZARK that brings together OZARK’s action horror and BLACKWOOD’s dark cinematic action thriller.
Bundle name: After Dark Bundle
Bundle discount: 10% off for both gamesThe After Dark Bundle gives players an easy way to discover two very different journeys into the dark.
STRAIGHT FROM THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR
“Finishing OZARK and finally putting it out into the world means a lot to us. To everyone who has been part of this for years, to the new friends we met along the way, and to everyone who has played, shared, praised, criticized, encouraged, or simply given OZARK a chance, thank you. The response so far has been amazing, mixed, thoughtful, and sometimes incredibly detailed. We appreciate all of it.
We’re a small team, and we couldn’t do everything we imagined. We probably tried to make something a little bigger than ourselves at times, but we finished it. We hope OZARK showed you something a little different and contributed something, however small, to this medium we love, just like so many of our favorite games did for us. Thank you for playing, and thank you for being part of it.”
– Andrew Kostuik, Creative Director
ABOUT ALTER-BOY
ALTER-BOY is the three-person development team behind OZARK. The team has spent more than six years building the game while balancing families, careers, and the realities of small-team development. OZARK reflects that perspective: a complete, focused horror game built to respect the player’s time while still delivering a memorable solo or co-op experience.
