Sightings of Beyond

A lonely valley. A failing research program. And something is watching... More than one something…

Sightings of Beyond is an atmospheric first-person exploration and survival experience set deep within a forgotten rural valley in Washington State. After a recent encounter with something undeniably non-human, you are forcibly reassigned to a long-abandoned government SETI program—Project SILO—revived solely to keep you contained and quiet.

You play as Dr Kai Mercer, an untrained, non-certified civilian whom the government labels “Doctor” for convenience and credibility. With no real preparation, you're dropped into a decaying research cabin created in 1985 and last operated in 1999, when its previous technician mysteriously vanished without a trace.

Your task is simple on paper:
Monitor strange phenomena, use your radio to relay your own audio to space with accurate responses back, and document potential other-planetary activity with your camera.
In practice, nothing about the valley—or Project SILO—feels safe, stable, or truthful.

This prototype playtest demo represents the very first public look at the project — a raw, evolving sandbox where core mechanics, environment art, and world-building are being shaped in real time. Expect some bugs and issues. 

v0.1a includes 14 story days, multiple random events tied to how you personally interact with the unknown, 30+ anomalies to capture with the camera, hidden story details throughout the map, plenty of Easter eggs, and 10+ Hours of gameplay per playthrough.

Inspirations

Sightings & Signals draws influence from:

• Voices of the Void – Huge and major inspiration for my project, especially earlier versions of the game (up to v0.5a). Big thanks to this game as it probably wouldn't exist without it, recommend u check it out. A Great game and is way more detailed and filled out than this game if u want to play more signal games.
  

• Signal Simulator – Spawned the Alien signal-capturing genre, which is a major inspiration for my game in general. Still is an amazing game (please update...)
  

• Source Engine/GMOD – Some of the sound effects in this game are from the Source engine, which was used for lots of Valve games, with a mix of my custom ones. GMOD also inspired the sandboxy physics in the game, with VotV being a part of it too; the game's lighting is also inspired by Source 2. 
  

• Real-world radio astronomy, unidentified aerial phenomena, and humanoid encounter creature reports. 

Despite these inspirations, the project aims for its own identity — more grounded, more melancholic, more "lone researcher wandering a strange valley with only their thoughts and a flashlight". Instead of overly intense horror with slender man riding ur dih 24/7 or unfunny "wholesome chungus" meme creatures, or "jokes"  kinda forced way too much that makes a horror game not a horror game anymore.

What to Expect in Prototype

This is a prototype — it’s raw, experimental, and incomplete. But the game still has content

Expect:

• Early mechanics

• Unfinished Map

• Odd bugs

• Missing features

BUT!!!....

• A large handcrafted outdoor region

• 1/3rd of ss_uswestvalley map complete

• Full dynamic day/night cycle

• A developing interior research cabin to chill in and relay messages to space

• Working inventory system

• Pick-up & usable objects

• Hunger + sleep needs (early balancing)

• Flashlight system + batteries

• Prototype achievements 
  

• ss_tutorial level on how to play

• Usable vehicles, such as a Jeep, to travel quickly around the map (maybe more later???)

• Dynamic environmental soundscape
  

• Early worldbuilding clues are scattered around the map
  

• Soundtrack composed by me, yes, I make music
  

• Working radio relay and camera capture system (you can use your microphone audio, audio files, or type out messages to send out in space and get a response back)
  

• Money system with upgrades and purchasable items 
  

• Multiple events and story bits
  

• Hand-made Optimized Screen Spaced Global Illumination that runs on all systems 
  

• Hand-made Optional Screen Spaced Pathtracing, no RTX or Raytracing GPU required (Very WIP at the moment, for higher-end systems)

• Simple weather system

• Two playable weeks to gather messages from space, pictures of strange things, creature sightings, progress story, and upgrade your equipment. 

The purpose of this demo is playtesting — to gather feedback, find what feels good, and decide the direction of development moving forward.

Feedback lowk shapes the future of the project. Just say shi or not in the comments, and I'll try to respond.

What To Maybe Expect Later

The intended full version will include:

• More story progression + days

• Fixed base FPS drop when around base (currently fixing that, due to Unity culling being shit and DSP load being wonky at the current state)

• FMOD audio implementation (Soon to be added)

• More interactable items, props

• Quality of life improvements

• More upgrades and power management options

• Better weather details, immersive weather (Snow, Temperature Readings, Seasons???

• More events and captures
  

• Better optimizations for lower-end systems (More settings options, optimizations, making anything run this game)

• More details around the map, better modeling, filled out base

• Multiplayer???

System Specs

Minimum Specs GPU: GTX 1650/1050 or Radeon iGPU 780M/680M 

Minimum Specs CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i3-12100F

Minimum Specs RAM: 8GB DDR4

Minimum Specs DISK: HDD

Recommended Specs GPU: GTX 1060/RTX 2060 or any '60 class cards with 6GB+ VRAM (Game on max only uses 3.0GB VRAM on average, 4k)

Recommended Specs CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or Intel Core i5-12400F

Recommended Specs RAM: 8GB+ DDR4

Recommended Specs DISK: SSD

(If GPU/CPU is not listed, check what's equivalent to your system)

I would recommend turning AA off for higher res over 1080p, cause AA rendering hurts fps a lot at 4k. Personal settings for RTX 4060+ is 0% AA rendering and AA set to 0, max GI, and everything else, then 4k Resolution. You will get around a 90+ fps avg (game doesnt even use max GPU utilization until u use 8k on a 5060 lmao, the GPU I use)

Thank You for Testing

Report bugs, share screenshots, suggest features, and tell me what moments felt right or wrong. Everything helps for my stupid lil alien game. Or just spam in the comments telling me to update the game, don't really matter tbh, not gonna ban you just for that lmao. Let me know if u guys want ts on Steam or not, I will pay the 99$ or whatever tf, I'm employed unlike a lot of game devs on the internet. Just don't want this game drowned in the Steam new release gooner slop before it even has a following, wasting money. One last thing, let me know if u want donations on. Turned them off because I feel kinda scummy asking for donations before the game has a following, so just lemme know. Alr, have fun playing my game, I spent way too much time on it, if people even manage to find it that is.

Welcome to West Valley, Washington, USA.
Keep your eyes on the sky, or maybe even the ground.
And if you hear a noise from the bathroom after midnight… maybe don’t go to it.