At long last, our newest game is now available! Neo Harbor Rescue Squad brings fresh paramedic action and lets you save lives as a rookie paramedic today!
As we celebrate launch, here are a few key things you'll want to know about the game:
1) It targets 4K/60fps on suitable hardware
Yes, it's our first 4K game! We wanted the bright, colourful artwork and animation to really shine, so on capable systems (see the requirements on the main store page) the game can run up to native 4K resolution. Of course, in the Options menu, you can choose a variety of resolutions in both 16:9 and 16:10 ratios.
2) It's fully localized in English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese
Given that vibrant Neo Harbor City is inspired by co-designer Nancy's home town of Hong Kong, we wanted to make the game accessible to our Chinese-speaking friends and family. The localization team managed to even work in some language-specific puns!
3) It was designed with Steam Deck in mind
Neo Harbor Rescue Squad runs at native 1280x800 resolution on Steam Deck and is fully controller-driven there, so if you have one, be sure to give it a go! We also are fans of Valve's portable system, so we wanted to make sure it was ready on day one.
Thanks for all your support so far. If you like the game, please leave a review! And if you have any issues, feel free to report them in the game's Tech Help discussion category.
See you in the field! - Ben & Nancy
Our new game launches November 12!
Hello, out there!
As we've mentioned before, we've been cooking something a little different for our fourth game — Neo Harbor Rescue Squad is an arcade-style game about saving lives as a rookie paramedic that uses fast-paced minigames and a battle-like triage system to simulate saving lives in the field.
It's obviously a lot more colourful and decidedly uh, less horrific, than something like Home, but the BancyCo approach still shines through: it's got some mystery, great characters, an innovative UI, and a story very personal to us, the developers.
And this labour of love finally launches on November 12! (Of course, you can still play the free demo right now).
Watch the new gameplay trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKADGZyXbyk&ab_channel=BancyCo
We hope you'll give it a shot on launch day (for a 10% launch discount, BTW!) and keep an eye out for the Easter eggs we've hidden in the game...
As we celebrate the upcoming launch of our fourth game, Neo Harbor Rescue Squad, we wanted to collect our first three titles for new and existing players. This bundle is a complete-the-set triple-pack, so if you've not played all of our previous titles, now is a great time to do so at a discounted price.
Awakened by an oncoming storm, you open your eyes to discover yourself in a strange, dark room – tucked away in a house that’s not yours. As you play the game, it changes – subtly, almost imperceptibly – to reflect your perspective. It's a horror game unlike any other, and as you'll discover, its truths are entirely subjective.
Can love bloom on a doomed space colony? Alone With You is the tragic sci-fi follow-up to indie horror hit Home, in which you discover the fate of your crumbling installation with the help of a very emotive AI companion and four fully-realized holograms. Providing a rich story that adapts to your choices, Alone With You is the Space Quest-meets-OK Cupid adventure game you never knew you wanted – until now!
Run for your life, hide in the shadows, and use your wits to avoid shadowy creatures and uncover the terrible truths of your wretched home town. Solve devious puzzles to reveal the emotionally-charged story of Holly and her friends that will have you hooked until the very end!
Horror, sci-fi, pixel art, and deep storytelling — complete your collection today!
FINALLY we can show you what we’ve been working on for these last few years! It took a bit longer than we planned, based on our usual game release schedule, but now you can see what we've been cooking!
We would love, love, LOVE for you to give the demo a try. It'll show you about 30 minutes of what the game has to offer — the frantic action, the upbeat humour, and the loveable cast of characters we've created for you.
For those who’ve played our previous games, you’ll notice a change in tone, and there’s a reason for that. This game was conceived during the height of the pandemic. Initially, we were going to channel that into a dark mystery, just like our other games, but we struggled to make it fun. Maybe it was because neither of us had the mental capacity during those uncertain times. Eventually, we tried a different angle. We added a cast of colorful characters, including a smack-talking dolphin (don’t ask); that’s when we knew we’d hit the right note.
So please enjoy this demo! Tell your friends, smack that wishlist button, etc. etc. — and thanks for your continued support. 🙏
Ben & Nancy
Announcing our new game: Neo Harbor Rescue Squad!
Hello, everyone! We can at long last can announce our fourth original game, Neo Harbor Rescue Squad!
This arcade-style action title fuses the mechanics of popular medical-themed games from the Wii and DS era with fast-paced, challenging minigames so you get a taste of being a paramedic.
The Rescue Squad has long lived in the shadow of the Neo Harbor City's prestigious Fire Department, but no more! As the team's new paramedic rookie, players must respond to emergencies throughout the city, deal with difficult patients, and protect the squad's reputation against the machinations of news reporter Betty Woo!
Notable features:
🩹 Use our triage system to quickly monitor patients’ health, how much damage they’re taking, if they’re critical, and learn to prioritize treatment
🪟 Quickly switch between different views to manage multiple patients across a variety of complex scenes
🛡️ Use shields to temporarily protect your patients from damage, giving you some breathing room to strategize
🅰️ Aim for a high rank with each emergency; be graded based on speed, skill, and the condition of your patients
💬 Make dialogue choices to deal with the public, advance the story, and get to know your squadmates
🐬 Laugh through a story of teamwork and friendship (and dolphins), inspired by real paramedic stories in Asia!
👀 Be a paramedic in up to native 4K!
Sounds exciting? Then wishlist the game today!🙏 Your support means a lot to us and helps us reach more players!
Curious about how/why we decided to make a paramedic action game? We'll be posting behind-the-scenes updates about our development process up until launch.
Thank you! Ben + Nancy (BancyCo)
Continue the story of Worse Than Death!
What's Worse Than Death? Perhaps living the rest of your life alone.
After Holly and Flynn's adventures in the original game, they're living in Toronto, putting their lives back together. But there's a new danger — and it's decidedly more... seductive.
An official sequel story, by us!
Written and drawn by Benjamin Rivers, the game's designer, and edited by Nancy Yeung, its producer, this is the real deal — a meaty horror/romance manga that explores the fallout of Worse Than Death's story.
Since WTD is so inspired by horror comics and manga, we always intended to continue the story in print. We've been publishing chapters online for the past year, and collected them into the first graphic novel volume.
Steam-exclusive content
The Steam Edition of Worse Than Death: Volume 1 includes puzzle hints and solutions for the game itself, which you won't find in any other edition. And it will look great on your phone or tablet, with clear text and high-quality images.
If you like your comics in print, you can check out the official website for the book. And if you want see live updates as I draw new chapters, follow me on Instagram.
Happy reading and Happy Halloween! We hope you truly love Holly's new adventures — it's gonna get... Steamy in here!
— Ben
Worse Than Death now supports Mac, fan translations!
We have a nice, big update for you!
Mac support!
With v1.0.2, Worse Than Death is now available for macOS (including Catalina)! The game features Steam Cloud so you can move from PC to Mac and back again seamlessly. Whether you're on a lithe Macbook Air or a honkin' new Mac Pro, it's time to get spooked!
(Gasp) Fan translation support!
And now, for a feature we've been thinking about for a long time: Worse Than Death now supports community localization! We've created a brand new guide to explain how it works:
Thus far we haven't localized the game officially because it is so expensive to do so. We receive emails all the time from people or firms offering to translate the game into any given language "for free." We've refused to take people's free work and publish it commercially, so with this new functionality, players can now try their hand at localization if they so choose.
Other changes in this version:
fixed some typos
removed the ability to toggle a minor testing feature (oops)
adjusted some sound design in certain areas
corrected several minor under-the-hood things
Best of all, Worse Than Death is 30% off as part of the Steam Winter Sale! Thanks for playing!
Look out! Worse Than Death is now available!
It's October, all right! And what better time is there to launch a new, spooky game? We hope you'll dive into Worse Than Death — the follow-up to our previous horror game, Home — and plumb its spooky depths.
Featuring full keyboard/mouse and controller support, Steam Cloud, a hearty achievement list, and three difficulty modes, Worse Than Death will keep your heart racing for some time.
Boy, are we stoked to finally announce this date! After our reveal in February, we launched on iOS in the summer, and have been working hard on getting the game just right for consoles and PC.
And on October 8, we can finally share our sordid, spooky adventure with you!
In its glowing review, the Los Angeles Times labeled Worse Than Death “a game with ‘Stranger Things’ vibes,” and TouchArcade called it “an incredible experience,” awarding it 4.5 out of 5 stars and listing it as one of July’s best games. The App Store itself proclaimed Worse Than Death Game of the Day, calling it, “stunning, spooky and deep.”
Some reminders on Steam features:
three difficulty modes (Normal, Hard and Nightmare)
29 achievements to keep you playing in interesting ways and scouring for secrets
Steam cloud support
hot-swap between keyboard/mouse and controller anytime
We hope you're excited! And remember: we're a tiny mom-and-pop studio; if you think some friends would be into WTD, please tell them!
Nice big update on our upcoming release!
Hello, horror fans!
We know it's been a little while since we announced the game, so here's a quick update on what's up:
About the Steam release
Our first release for Worse Than Death was on iOS in July, and since that very successful launch, we've been prepping the Steam and console versions. Because we're such a small studio (2 people!), we have to be smart about what we work on when.
TL;DR: Worse Than Death will be launching here at the end of this summer, and it's going to be worth the wait!
Amazing critical reception
Obviously we dig our own game, but we're not alone! Check out what the (gasp) Los Angeles Times had to say about the game:
"For those who have been binge-watching the latest season of ‘Stranger Things,’ this like-minded genre mashup … may be a rather welcome dessert."
We sat down with gaming channel Squad State this summer to talk all about the game, working as a small studio, and making cool horror stuff. Watch it here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BH1pTcLAxE
The road to launch
We'll continue to post updates as we get close to launch; we can't wait for you to get your hands on the game (especially if you play with a gamepad — the "stereo rumble" system we've created is pretty cool).
