1. Sub-Verge
  2. News

Sub-Verge News

Welcome to the House of Misfits

Hark! It is time we made some noise.

The house of misfits is open.



Pantaloon is broadening its mission of platforming bold and bizarre games by moving into the world of original publishing, as we seek to become a home for misfits with our new game label.

First order of business? We’re bringing three (!) games to market this year, and are now actively looking to sign more weird and wayward games to bring to our label of misfits.

Before looking at our first titles, some context: I will submit that the world does not need another indie publisher, but the Pantaloon Label is driven by a different vision, with a combination of philosophies, terms and technologies (no, not that one) that will make it stand out. We’re currently hard at work on a platform that will underpin our new label, and will be unveiling this later in the year.

Our newsletter - now approaching 30k subscribers - will remain the Sun around which everything else will orbit.

We’ll still be providing the most unreasonably delightful mailing list in games, we'll still be offering up games from incredible partners each month, and we'll still be curating and championing the best from the frontlines of the indie.

What we'll also now be doing is weaving email more deeply into the way we operate as a game label, with a plethora of exciting initiatives we'll be lifting the lid on over the course of the year. The newsletter is at the heart of it all. Sign up! Let me show you.

Onto more interesting things! The games!

The first title under our new label is Sub-Verge; a psychological narrative puzzle game from Interactive Tragedy, and a title that builds a fascinating bridge between puzzles and story. Sub-Verge marks Zach Dodson’s transition as a novelist (and owner of a book publishing house) into the world of games.



We’re also partnering with Tributary Games on Occlude, which takes the Solitaire ruleset and transforms it through a lens of cosmic horror, offering a meta-challenge where the rules are esoteric and ever-changing. With cerebral puzzles and a rich, lore-dense narrative, Occlude looks to take the revered card game into uncharted territory.



The third title you might have heard of already; an ever-evolving ensemble of riddles, challenges and interactive oddities. Updated regularly, Puzzletrunk is tied to Pantaloon‘s mission of platforming bold and bizarre games. Solve the puzzle, get your key for a notable indie game as a reward.



This is just the start, of course, and we’re now actively looking to fill our books with offbeat, vibrant games that cock heads and raise eyebrows. For any developers who might be reading this (hello!) and possibly interested in our services, we’ve made our publishing terms public, which we hope offers some transparency to things.

There’s a billion other things I’m excited to talk about, but for now, there’s work to be done.

Please follow our new publisher page on Steam, and join the Discord channel to chat with us about anything and everything related to the above.

More soon x

Let's interact, tragically, and in a limited way

Ice-breakers are awkward. Hi. We’re Interactive Tragedy, Limited. We’re a computer game company, but honestly, we’d really just like to talk about our feelings. And we’ve got a lot of them today, since we’re announcing... ourselves.

We come from all over the world, but most of us are in Wellington, New Zealand now. We have special connections to Finland. We’ve worked on books and comics and tv shows together. And now, we’re making games...

>Sub-Verge is the first! It’s an underwater puzzle you’ve got to talk your way out of—the story is the game, so you’ve got to really understand the characters and pit them against each other to achieve your ends. Which should be: escaping your claustrophobic submersible. There’s an underwater creature with a secret in its jelly-sac. It’s just bizarre enough that Pantaloon, an excellent newsletter-turned-publisher, in the UK has agreed to release it into an unsuspecting world, and we feel grateful about that. A big feeling.



Other feelings have to do with Kuu, an atmospheric moonbase manager that we’ve been laboring at for some time, trying to get the ecosystem of game and story to live in harmony, hoping to avoid the schismogenesis that collapsed Biosphere 2, our beautiful failure of an inspiration. You can wishlist that game now, and if you’re at GDC, we’ll endeavor to get over any shyness and show you our work-in-progress.

We’re out of the hiding hole. As soon as our eyes adjust to the light, we promise more eye contact and more announcements and stories to come over the next few months. You can sign up for Sub-Verge updates from the Pantaloon newsletter, with an option to choose your allegiance, bestowing you with a unique and exclusive Discord Role.



It’s really nice to meet you. I hope we can be friends. If you want to talk about your feelings, too: we’re listening.

Let's interact, tragically, and in a limited way

Ice-breakers are awkward. Hi. We’re Interactive Tragedy, Limited. We’re a computer game company, but honestly, we’d really just like to talk about our feelings. And we’ve got a lot of them today, since we’re announcing... ourselves.

We come from all over the world, but most of us are in Wellington, New Zealand now. We have special connections to Finland. We’ve worked on books and comics and tv shows together. And now, we’re making games...

>Sub-Verge is the first! It’s an underwater puzzle you’ve got to talk your way out of—the story is the game, so you’ve got to really understand the characters and pit them against each other to achieve your ends. Which should be: escaping your claustrophobic submersible. There’s an underwater creature with a secret in its jelly-sac. It’s just bizarre enough that Pantaloon, an excellent newsletter-turned-publisher, in the UK has agreed to release it into an unsuspecting world, and we feel grateful about that. A big feeling.



Other feelings have to do with Kuu, an atmospheric moonbase manager that we’ve been laboring at for some time, trying to get the ecosystem of game and story to live in harmony, hoping to avoid the schismogenesis that collapsed Biosphere 2, our beautiful failure of an inspiration. You can wishlist that game now, and if you’re at GDC, we’ll endeavor to get over any shyness and show you our work-in-progress.

We’re out of the hiding hole. As soon as our eyes adjust to the light, we promise more eye contact and more announcements and stories to come over the next few months. You can sign up for Sub-Verge updates from the Pantaloon newsletter, with an option to choose your allegiance, bestowing you with a unique and exclusive Discord Role.



It’s really nice to meet you. I hope we can be friends. If you want to talk about your feelings, too: we’re listening.

Transmission #1 | Introductions

Ice-breakers are awkward. Hi. We’re Interactive Tragedy, Limited. We’re a computer game company, but honestly, we’d really just like to talk about our feelings. And we’ve got a lot of them today, since we’re announcing... ourselves.

We come from all over the world, but most of us are in Wellington, New Zealand now. We have special connections to Finland. We’ve worked on books and comics and tv shows together. And now, we’re making games...

Sub-Verge is the first! It’s an underwater puzzle you’ve got to talk your way out of—the story is the game, so you’ve got to really understand the characters and pit them against each other to achieve your ends. Which should be: escaping your claustrophobic submersible. There’s an underwater creature with a secret in its jelly-sac. It’s just bizarre enough that Pantaloon, an excellent newsletter-turned-publisher, in the UK has agreed to release it into an unsuspecting world, and we feel grateful about that. A big feeling.



Other feelings have to do with Kuu, an atmospheric moonbase manager that we’ve been laboring at for some time, trying to get the ecosystem of game and story to live in harmony, hoping to avoid the schismogenesis that collapsed Biosphere 2, our beautiful failure of an inspiration. You can wishlist that game now, and if you’re at GDC, we’ll endeavor to get over any shyness and show you our work-in-progress.

We’re out of the hiding hole. As soon as our eyes adjust to the light, we promise more eye contact and more announcements and stories to come over the next few months. You can sign up for Sub-Verge updates here, with an option to choose your allegiance, bestowing you with a unique and exclusive Discord Role.



It’s really nice to meet you. I hope we can be friends. If you want to talk about your feelings, too: we’re listening.