Coming Soon: The Alley

Developer: AIXLAB

Publisher: Smilegate, Thermite Games

Platform: PC (Steam)

Release Date: 2026

This latest chapter in the anomaly-spotting genre offers a series of tight alleyways as its setting, and is arriving on Steam following its Korean STOVE release last year. Set someplace in Korea, you’re a young student trapped in an endless trap of dingy alleys. The only way to escape is to identify and report strange goings-on to your conveniently-spiritual grandma—but get it wrong, and the vengeful ghost takes umbrage at your incompetence, relieving you of one of your three lives.

First task is to locate the anomaly, using a handy bracelet. Next, you must decide whether it’s a Ghost Trace (something isn’t quite right, such as a child’s toy operating without a battery) or Ghost Feint (might look unusual, but basically is as you would expect in the real world). Take a pic, send it to granny with your choice and, hopefully, move on to the next illusion.

From its short demo, The Alley presents plenty of spooky situations, and looks to be another skin-crawling addition to the anomaly genre. Hopefully we’ll get to explore it later this year.