BELOW THE LAYER

A multiplayer naval simulation

Somewhere below the layer,
someone is listening.

Go to the beta What is it?

Coming to Steam in the months ahead

A submarine lying surfaced on a calm sea at sunset, the sun low over the water. Rendered in the game.

Take a submarine or a surface ship to sea against real captains and Computer ships, in an ocean built out of sound. Every contact begins as a whisper on a single bearing. What you make of it is the game.

The game

An ocean you listen to

Out here you rarely see anything. You hear it. A distant shaft line, the hum of a generator, a burst of cavitation from someone in a hurry, the sea carries all of it, bends it, traps it in ducts and channels, and hides some of it beneath the layer altogether. Below the Layer works out where every sound can go, so the water's temperature, the depth, the weather and the seabed decide who can hear whom.

You run your boat from her stations: the helm and the chart, the waterfalls, LOFAR and DEMON, the periscope or the bridge. A smear of noise becomes a set of steady lines, the lines become a class of boat, and the picture builds one bearing at a time, while somebody, somewhere, may be building one of you.

Speed is noise. An active ping is a shout. A diesel boat's battery is a clock that never stops. Every choice trades what you learn for what you give away, and the captain on the other side is making the same choices.

A dark submarine lying on the surface of a still, grey sea under a pale morning sky.
A grey morning, a boat on the surface. Rendered in the game.

From the game

Above the water, and below it

A submarine running on the surface at dawn, seen from above her quarter, a long white wake behind her.
First light, and a boat in a hurry. Rendered in the game.
A grey frigate on the horizon, seen low across a rolling sea from about the height of a periscope.
A frigate on the horizon, from about the height of a periscope. Rendered in the game.
A frigate in profile against a pale sunset sky, seen through a periscope's crosshairs
Through the periscope at sunset, a frigate in profile. Rendered in the game.
A frigate coming bow on at speed, green through a periscope's night vision
Night vision, and a frigate coming straight at you at speed. Rendered in the game.
The game's waterfall on the bow array: bearing runs across the top, time runs down, and three green traces curve across it as ships pass ahead of the boat.
The bow array's waterfall: bearing across, time running down. A ship crossing ahead draws a curve, and the curve tells you which way she is going. Captured in the game.
The game's LOFAR display on one contact: a spectrum with four peaks over a scrolling gram of four steady green lines.
LOFAR on a snorting diesel boat: steady lines at 50, 100, 150 and 200 Hz from her electrical supply. Lines like these tell you what she is. Captured in the game.

Coming to Steam in the months ahead

The store page will be linked here as soon as it is live.

Beta

The beta is by invitation, for now

If someone has invited you, you can be at sea tonight, on Windows. No invitation yet? Write to contact@belowthelayer.co.uk and tell us a little about yourself. We are letting people aboard a few at a time.

Go to the beta
New tester? Sign up Already signed up? Sign in and download
  1. Get today's code from whoever invited you.
  2. Sign up and confirm your email address.
  3. Download the installer. It keeps the game up to date every time you start it.

Contact

Getting in touch

contact@belowthelayer.co.uk

Questions, ideas, a bug you found, or a boat you would like to see in the fleet. We read everything. Beta testers can also send a bug report from inside the game.