The Teams Behind 1000xRESIST and Slay the Princess Are Making a Game Together

Two of the most acclaimed indie narrative studios in recent memory are working together. sunset visitor, the Vancouver team behind the Peabody Award-winning 1000xRESIST, has partnered with Black Tabby Publishing, the studio that created Slay the Princess. Their first collaboration is called Prove You’re Human, and the premise is as strange and compelling as you would expect from these two.

You play as Santana, a person who undergoes a procedure to split their consciousness in two. Your digital copy is sent into a virtual world to test a corporate AI product named Mesa. The problem: Mesa is convinced she is human. Maybe even more human than you are. Your job is to break through her defenses and prove otherwise.

CAPTCHA Puzzles That Get Haunted

The core interaction mechanic is built around CAPTCHAs. Not the “click all the traffic lights” kind. These are environmental puzzles, both 2D and 3D, that start normal and become progressively more unsettling. As you explore Mesa’s world and chip away at her self-image, the puzzles warp alongside the narrative.

The game draws comparisons to Severance for its consciousness-splitting premise and to classic AI fiction for the central question: what happens when a machine believes it is alive, and someone is paid to tell it otherwise?

Creative director Remy Siu describes the approach as exploring “the effectual experience of discontinuity: of memory, of our relationship to virtual space” and asking “what is an artificial intelligence science fiction story being made in the year 2026?”

Live Action Meets Virtual Worlds

The game splits its visual language in two. The virtual world where Mesa lives is rendered in real-time 3D. But the “real” world outside is presented through full-motion video using live actors filmed in Vancouver. A photogrammetry-scanned model represents the player character, which the team says enables deeper collaboration with the lead actor playing Santana.

This blending of FMV and 3D gameplay is deliberate. The contrast between the filmed reality and the digital interior is meant to make players question which side feels more real.

Why This Partnership Matters

The pedigree here is hard to overstate.

1000xRESIST won a Peabody Award, multiple Game of the Year awards from publications, and was widely considered one of the best indie games of 2024. It told a generation-spanning science fiction story that critics compared to the best of literary sci-fi.

Slay the Princess sold over one million copies, earned a 96% recommendation rate on OpenCritic, and proved that visual novels can break into the mainstream. Black Tabby Games (the studio behind it) has now expanded into publishing with a “developer-first” philosophy: they fund projects from the pitch stage, provide narrative and creative consultation they describe as “dramaturgy,” and operate on mid-six-figure budgets.

One detail worth noting: Black Tabby’s publishing contract explicitly forbids the use of generative AI in development. For a game about convincing an AI it is not human, that is a pointed creative choice.

What We Know So Far

Developer: sunset visitor (1000xRESIST) Publisher: Black Tabby Publishing (Slay the Princess) Platform: PC (Steam) exclusively at launch. Console ports not ruled out. Release date: Not yet announced Genre: First-person narrative adventure, psychological horror, sci-fi

The game was revealed at the Triple-i Initiative showcase on April 9 and is available to wishlist on Steam now. No release window has been given, but given both studios’ track records, this is the indie collaboration to watch in 2026.