Game Atelier — the studio behind Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom and Otherskin — has released the first major update to its asymmetrical horror game Follow Us since the title entered Early Access last month. The headline change is a complete rework of the game’s second stage, alongside a batch of quality-of-life additions.
Player feedback since launch consistently flagged Level 2, A Night with DJ Susan, as less fun and less frightening than the surrounding stages. The team took that on board and rebuilt the level from the ground up; the revised version is live now.
• Full controller support
• Steam Deck support
• Character skin selection — change how your character looks
• Additional quality-of-life improvements throughout
Development Goes on Hold
The update arrives alongside harder news. Despite the studio’s efforts to support and promote the Early Access launch, Game Atelier has said current sales don’t allow it to keep an active development team on the project. Development is being paused following this release.
Follow Us was entirely self-funded — development, localisation, marketing, PR, and content creator outreach all handled in-house. The studio was clear that it wanted to ship this particular update, with the reworked level and the accessibility improvements, before stepping back.
Importantly, this isn’t a shutdown. The game remains available and playable on Steam, the studio has said communication isn’t cut off — it still welcomes suggestions and will fix bugs where it can — and Game Atelier hopes it may be able to return to the project in future.
What Follow Us Actually Is
For anyone unfamiliar, Follow Us is a two-player asymmetrical horror game where each round begins with players choosing between two very different roles.
Bravely navigate a deadly, haunted environment on foot. You’re the one in danger, the one who’s isolated, and the one who has to trust a voice in your ear.
Hang back safe in the van, hacking the playspace to protect your partner. You’re safe — and helpless, under constant pressure, watching it happen.
The design is built on communication rather than complex mechanics, generating tension by combining isolation and connection. Expect panic, shouting, and miscommunication — one wrong call can get your partner killed, and it will probably be your fault. Each stage brings its own mechanics, so the communication challenge shifts as you progress.
Swapping roles is where it gets interesting: the Explorer experiences isolation and danger in the field while the Operator suffers helplessness and pressure, so every swap creates a fresh emotional scenario. Visually it leans on lo-fi, chunky PSone-inspired graphics, chasing a clean and immediately legible look so anyone can jump straight in.
The game is available in thirteen languages, with full text and menu localisation in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese — a notably broad spread for a self-funded indie.
About Game Atelier
That context matters. Monster Boy was a genuinely well-received title, and Follow Us represented a deliberate move back toward creative freedom and in-house production with a small team. That a studio with that track record still couldn’t make a self-funded indie horror game sustainable is a familiar and difficult story in the current market.
Follow Us remains available on Steam in Early Access, now with its reworked second level, controller and Steam Deck support, and character customisation. If the premise appeals, it’s still very much playable — and for a two-player horror game built entirely on talking to each other, an audience that shows up is the thing that might yet bring it back.
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