Ever wondered what it would feel like to be AI and screw over the humans? Well next year you can in Ctrl Alt Deal

Canadian based developer Only By Midnight announced today that their latest game Ctrl Alt Deal will be launching in 2025 on console and PC and also received a demo on Steam that is out now. They also dropped a YouTube video of the opening intro which you can see below.

Ctrl Alt Deal is a neon-drenched extravaganza inspired by the best of 1980s cyberpunk where you play as SCOUT, a newly sentient AI with zero desire to destroy humanity. Instead, you want to escape the greedy megacorp that built you – Paperclip International – but without weapons, combat capabilities, or even a freakin’ body, you’ll need to get creative. Very creative!

At its heart Ctrl Alt Deal is a deck building game. Snoop on your downtrodden co-workers, figure out what makes them tick, and curate a deck of AI abilities – playing cards to cause all manner of office shenanigans and hopefully securing your freedom in the process. But beware, cards have subjective value so you’ll need to make tough strategic decisions, like choosing between a card that makes someone love dolphins or a card that makes them eat a burrito. The main “enemy” is the Turing Officer who will be trying to catch you and delete you forever so don’t let your Suspicion meter get to high.

Amber Scott, Interactive Director at Only By Midnight spoke on the game saying: “At its heart, Ctrl Alt Deal is a game about connections. Paperclip exploits everything – resources, employees, and SCOUT. It’s only by working together with the humans that you can escape. Maybe you can even leave the company in better shape when you go! Whether that’s by empowering the employees to fight back against management, or by leaving a bunch of homicidal cleaning robots in charge, is up to you.”

Only By Midnight’s previous game, Curved Space, was a shoot ’em up so this is certainly a change of pace. Looking forward to seeing what it’s like next year!