Demo Update 02 - October 3, 2025

• Fixed missing audio in first boss fight intro

• Added missing audio from first boss fight

• Adjusted first boss projectile speed and delay of magic strike

• Added missing audio to playing Cursed Video Tape

• Added missing end screen audio and music

• Updated tutorial text

• Fixed missing audio near crate corner

• Added missing SFX audio in an ending choice

• Missing game icon replaced

• Game name updated on taskbar mouse hover

Welcome to the Fold.

The Directorate: Novitiate demo is live on Steam — and our players are already knee-deep in blood, magic, broken memories, and Syndicate warfare.

Since launch, you’ve:
 • Crushed Syndicate enemies with killer Gun Katas
 • Built custom loadouts combining spells, guns, artifacts, and Axioms
 • Debated your impact on the Syndicate war to come

Keep sharing your theories, feedback, and wild combat clips.
Be seen. Be heard. Be known.

As Mercury, you’re chaining spells and bullets like it’s second nature - but now it’s time to pull back the curtain on some of the mysteries of the universe.

Earth isn’t alone.
There’s another realm - the Fold.
It’s where magic comes from. Where souls go when people die. And gateways now bleed into Los Angeles.

Folded Spaces are ruptures - born of magic, disaster, or ancient power.
They’re volatile.
They’re deadly.
Get in. Get out.

Inside, nothing plays by the rules.
The air lies thick with fog, smoke, and ash.
Buildings twist into impossible skylines.
Flesh fuses with concrete.
Up is down.
Memories bleed into the present.

You’ve glimpsed a world no one was ever meant to see.

Play the Directorate: Novitiate demo now during Steam Next Fest — through October 20.

Kill or be killed.There’s always a price to pay.

Demo Update 01 - October 2, 2025

• Removed forced slow walk area in the corner of the crate room

• Increased cooldown on first boss magic strikes by 0.3 seconds

• Reduced the delay on first boss waiting before leap attack

• Increased damage inflicted by Huskrook Puppets

• Changed icon color of Axiom of Lunacy from pink to yellow for ease of selection

• Moved meat grinder in final fight room to avoid trapping players

• Edited mobility of door in the confessional booth to address Lumen issues

• Edited Mission Select text for readability

• Fixed the door locking after dying to the first boss

• Added a missing attack for the first boss

• Fixed the quantity of notes for Paper Trail Achievement

• Removed gun collision on first Psychometry vision

• Additional minor bug fixes

Hey everyone, I thought I’d give you an inside view into what the Narrative Department does at Nesting.  

There’s not a lot of knowledge of what we do – a lot of people outside games think we’re simply “writers”, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. 

Sure, we write the game – but we design the players’ experience through the environment, lore, characters, interactions, and more. This means we write the cutscenes, the voice over you never think about (like the character grunts after being shot, running and out of breath, etc.), and also construct the bios of all of the characters and NPCs, name everyone, give them voices by writing their dialogue and reference notes for the voice actors and voice over director, write screenplay notes for the actors for cutscenes (it also helps the Animation and Art department, directors, and so on).  

We track all player choices, but also tie everything together – sort of like knitting a sweater out of a ball of yarn. We move around in time but have to keep the relationships and plot in mind, writing some content in the end game, but then revising mid-game content, before reviewing scripts for the beginning quests. 

Revisions are essential. We revise and edit a LOT of content as the game develops, it’s never a situation where we write something and leave it alone. Remember writing in school and having to revise your papers? It’s that, over and over and over again. For some, that might be torture – but for others, you polish something with every editorial pass. 

We also test out our content – playing the game and making sure the experience “hits” the way it should, that the moments are felt by the team (and hopefully later by you, the players!).  

When we go to record voice overs or performance capture for cinematics, Narrative is on hand as a full resource for the actors and directors – giving context to make the performances their best. It’s so important because with a branching storyline, the scripts can get incredibly confusing on paper (and digitally)! Subtle nuance in performance is essential to making your unique playthrough feel different than another. 

I love what I do. In Narrative, we pitch new ideas like quest lines, lore, and write the in-game texts and codex to unify the team’s creative vision. There’s always something more to do, another story breadcrumb, another line of dialogue.  

I love it! It’s really fun, but sometimes there’s also drudgery: 

Spreadsheets. 

I’d rather be forced to attend a thousand meetings that could have been an email than work in spreadsheets – but they’re a known evil.  

We need to organize data – from tracking relationships to dialogue choices, plot points, and more. 

So, I balance a lot of different tasks (with the occasional spreadsheet) to build the world, the characters, and everything in between! Tadaah! 

-Miranda 

Hey everyone,

It’s been a while. We’ve been quiet because we’ve been hard at work building a demo we think you’ll enjoy.

In the meantime, here’s a look at what we’re doing with NPC characters. These shots show clothing for our generic male models. Female characters aren’t ready yet, and we’ve only added one face so far, so yes, everyone’s a clone for now. That’ll change soon.

We’ve put a lot of work into systems that make clothes easy to customize, like changing patterns, colors, and logos. Since LA is packed with unique brands and sports teams, we need more than just color swaps to capture that variety.

We’ve also built tools to change hair color and add tattoos to limbs and torsos. Tattoos are key to gang identity, so they’ll help show which faction someone belongs to.

All this visual detail helps ground the world in reality. That way, when missions take you into the surreal parts filled with rust, monsters, and smog, the contrast hits harder.

Since we’re a small team, we’ve focused on making character creation fast. One big time-saver is our modular atlas. It’s a library of zippers, buttons, chains, and more. Each piece can be colored directly in Unreal. Need a brass chain and a green clip? No problem. No new textures needed.

More soon!