This article originally ran in Back Alley Games Issue 14, April 2025

Open on GDC 2023, where four recent graduates met and realized they were in the same boat: looking for a job in an industry where layoffs are perhaps too common. Realizing they could set off together, they formed Struggled Seas Studios, added a few more team members, and the rest was history.

Sean Smolen, the team’s resident world artist, met the Indie City Games board at M+DEV 2024 and had such a good time that he wrote in to discuss his upcoming PS2-inspired puzzle game, Phasebound: A Hero’s Journey.

Phasebound is what Smolen said is an open world action-adventure puzzle game “filled to the brim with side quests, customization options, relationship building, and so much more.”

Players will take on the role of Nick Nobel, a young hero that gains an ability called “permeation,” or simply the ability to phase through walls, floors, and ceilings around him. This is necessary both to solve the game’s puzzles and escape the spirit-filled cave system Nick and his sister Fey have fallen into.

These caves are Phasebound’s main setting, featuring many spirits that will either help the siblings or hinder them, seemingly intent on keeping them lost forever.

“It’s up to the player to learn and utilize permeation to solve puzzles and fight corrupted spirits in [the] strange and unorthodox world,” Smolen said.

This project may seem ambitious for a team of six recent graduates, and it is. Smolen acknowledges that the team has less than a decade of experience between them and has had to scale down the project multiple times.

“That’s not inherently a bad thing, though,” Smolen said. “Because of that, we have refined Phasebound to only have the most important aspects and be as pure to the genre as possible.”

The genre in question, according to Smolen, is PS2-era action games in the vein of Sly Cooper (Sucker Punch Productions) and Jak and Daxster (Naughty Dog). However, the storytelling devices in Phasebound are much more modern than their inspirations, with a focus on relationships.

Smolen said the team wants to offer an experience with a “hint of nostalgia for those tired of the endless stream of microtransactions and season passes” that are common in games today.

The game is still early in development, but many of the game’s systems are completed and Smolen said they are close to the QA phase. Like many small developers, he cites time as the biggest hurdle Struggled Seas Studios has had to overcome.

“We are all so passionate about this project, but it’s done in our free time,” Smolen said. “Finding time to make a game between work, family, friends, and all the other responsibilities of life can be difficult.”

Despite that, the team has never lost energy, still meeting each week to update each other on their work and plans for the future. As for what the team is looking forward to the most post-release?

“Fan interaction,” Smolen said. “We love the story, characters, and world we’ve created, and we are beyond thrilled to share [it] with others.”

Phasebound: A Hero’s Journey isn’t out on Steam yet, but keep an eye on Struggled Seas’ website for updates: https://struggledseas.com/