I’m Sonny Meek, co-founder, designer, and artist of Unicube Studios. Unicube is a small, two-man studio comprised of myself and my co-founder Dean. Dean and I are avid gamers, just like you, and I’m here today to tell you all about our debut game Sheltered!

Before working on Sheltered, myself and Dean had done some stints at university and retail jobs, but now we’re actually making our game development dream come true. Since January 2015, we’ve been working out of Team17’s offices and they’ve been helping support us make Sheltered be the best possible game we imagined.

So what is Sheltered? Well, at its core it’s a post-apocalyptic survival game with some pretty complicated mechanics that we believe bring it snugly into the roguelike arena. In Sheltered you’ll find some familiar mechanics: scavenging for supplies, crafting, building, and maintaining your shelter, but that’s where familiarity ends. Sheltered doesn’t focus on soul survivors, but an average family. Your family.

You start the game with two adults, two children, and a trusty pet. How you customize your family is entirely in your hands — choose their appearance, sex, traits, and name them. It’s this that makes Sheltered stand out so prominently.

The game has its hardships, and facing them as a family unit brings real emotional bonds and attachment, making every day decisions carry weight and difficulty. How will you cope when a child needs food, but doesn’t have any? Your dog, a loyal and trusty addition to the family is hungry — does he go without for the sake of the rest of the family? Does he… become the main food source himself?

Everyday survival is the main goal in Sheltered, but venturing out is just as important as battening down the hatches. In the wasteland you can find like-minded survivors, or people who are just thirsty for havoc. People can break into your shelter, and you’ll really have to bring out your strategic A-Game, setting traps and creating panic rooms for your family members. At every corner in Sheltered there’s an opportunity to improve your situation, or bring it crashing down like a house of cards!

Sheltered doesn’t pull any punches. If one of your family members dies then that’s it and you’ll have to find ways for the remaining members to cope. It’s game over when all family members die. How long will you be able to survive?

Thanks for reading! We’re so looking forward to bringing Sheltered to PS4 and we cannot wait to see your own survival plans in action and hear how many days you’re able to survive for when the game launches in the coming months.