One of the most interesting games I saw at GDC earlier this year was Submerged, a combat-free exploration game by Australian studio Uppercut Games. The game has been in development for a while now, but it's finally releasing next month on Steam – August 4, to be precise.

Submerged follows Miku, who's tasked with tending to her sick brother in a flood-ravaged city. It sounds like a familiar post-apocalyptic scenario on paper, but you won't be killing anything in Submerged. Instead, there's an aquatic open world to explore, and the game is designed to be played slowly: it's a meditative experience above all else.

It brings to mind a mix of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but instead of a horse you've got a boat, and instead of killing giant monsters you're marvelling at whales. Miku's most prized tool is a telescope, which she uses to spot points of interest thorughout the world. Expect to scale crumbling skyscrapers in search of any resources that might be useful to your ailing brother.

Created by former Irrational Australia devs (they had a hand in BioShock, XCOM and Tribes: Vengeance, among others), the game has a Steam page, and a new trailer.