Extreme claustrophobia where you must survive only by blinking and making choices.
The Ukrainian indie studio’s first independent project, Steam demo, receives 98% positive reviews.
Swytapp Games, an indie game developer based in Kyiv, Ukraine, has announced that its psychological horror game “The Floor Above” will be released on Steam in April 2026. This marks the studio’s first independent project.
“The Floor Above” combines the horror genre’s focus on discovering strange changes with a narrative-driven psychological narrative. The player is placed in an extreme situation, strapped to a chair and unable to move, forced to distinguish between reality and illusion using only the ability to look away and blink.
Maximum tension created by minimal manipulation
The core of the game is its extremely limited control scheme. The player is tied to a chair and cannot move, their only means of interaction being looking left and right and blinking. If they detect any suspicious changes in the room, they must press a red button, and if they see nothing unusual, a green button. Each cycle repeats the room, moving up one floor, undergoing subtle or dramatic changes.
With each cycle, players ascend one floor, and while rooms appear repeatedly, each experience subtle or dramatic changes. From minor object displacements to events that shake the entire space, observation and judgment are crucial for survival. The game features over 100 different anomalies, and players must utilize the blinking mechanic to discern what’s real and what’s illusionary.
“The genre has a great sense of tension, but we felt it was lacking in story and emotional reward,” said Alla Sobko, COO of Swytapp Games. “We wanted to combine the thrill of finding change with a story-driven psychological experience.”
Pursuing the truth through multiple endings and replayability
The Floor Above goes beyond simple horror to boast a deep narrative structure. The game offers five endings, including four main endings and one true ending, the final one unlocked only after completing the final loop.
A single playthrough is impossible to grasp the entire story, and the truth about Mike’s past and the world gradually emerges through repeated challenges. The narrator helps, threatens, and sometimes intentionally confuses the player.
The game is littered with hidden secrets and Easter eggs, including Morty the cat, who is described as a “sometimes funny, sometimes scary” character.
Following the demo’s release, the company received rave reviews and awards.
The demo version, released in September 2025, has received overwhelming acclaim from Steam users. Of the 128 user reviews, 98% were positive, and 100% of reviews over the past 30 days have been positive.
One user commented, “The demo is short, but incredibly polished. The unsettling atmosphere and the tension of the choices you make are impressive.”
Since the demo’s release, the development team has released three major updates, including Steam Deck support. The holiday update introduced seasonal content like Christmas decorations and snowy window views, leading to over 36,000 demo downloads and over 19,000 hours of playtime.
The game has won awards at Haunted House and Games Gathering Indie Blast, and currently has over 20,000 Steam wishlist members eagerly awaiting its release.
From outsourced development to your first independent project , Swytapp Games’ Journey
Swytapp Games is a Kyiv-based international game development studio specializing in full-cycle game development for mobile, web, PC, and consoles. The studio has over 10 years of experience across diverse fields, including Unity 3D/C#-based development, NFTs/blockchain, game design, UI/UX, 2D/3D art, and VFX.
The development team stated, “After years of outsourcing, The Floor Above is our first independent project that fully embodies our ideas and creative vision. This project marks a turning point for the studio.” Completed after approximately ten months of development, the title is gaining attention as a showcase of the creativity and technological prowess of the Ukrainian game industry.
The game is scheduled to be released on Steam in April 2026 and will support 12 languages, including English. A free demo is currently available on Steam, and while some sound effects and image assets were aided by AI tools, all original content, including text, story, animations, and core graphics, was created by the development team.
Steam Store Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3951680/The_Floor_Above/
