Publisher Over the Moon and developer Treetop’s 4-player comedy horror game Terrorbytes has launched into Early Access on Steam, with the goal to remain in the service to polish the game and release it in full in “a year or less”.

This Early Access version of Terrorbytes has launched with five levels, four different playable characters, five tools, and six safe room upgrades. New maps, enemies and more will be added in the months to come.

“Terrorbytes is the culmination of everything I love about gaming. It’s got goofy humor, addictive emergent gameplay, throwbacks to the retro arcade scene that inspired me as a child, and it’s just a lot of fun to play with your friends,” said John Warner, Founder and Studio Lead at Over the Moon. “This Early Access version offers great value with endless replay value, but it’s just the beginning. We’ll be adding more content throughout based on our own ideas in concert with player feedback.”

Inspired by Tron and Stranger Things, Terrorbytes follows four young friends as they’re sucked into a haunted arcade cabinet and turned into ghosts (the game’s old villains). The quartet is now forced to gather pellets for the horrifically mangled retro arcade hero “Ms Croak-Man”.

Cooperation in Terrorbytes is key. All players collect pellets for energy, which go into a shared pool, and everything has a cost; even sprinting costs energy,  so players will have to manage energy carefully if they want to meet the game’s collection targets, or purchase upgrades and special items. Items range from a simple flashlight, to a satisfying power washer, to map-room upgrades that allow players to spawn helpful arrows, decoys, or broadcast their voice to other players. You’ll need all the help you can get to survive this arcade realm full of skin-walkers, invisible stalkers, pocket-dimension horrors, and more.