Today, developer Introversion Software -- the team most know for Prison Architect -- officially announced its next title: Scanner Sombre. In addition to officially announcing the game, Introversion also revealed the game will be coming quite soon, more specifically April 26th, aka this Wednesday.

Inspired by games such as Gone Home, Dear Esther, and Firewatch, Scanner Sombre is described as a cave exploration experience. In it, you use a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scanner to aid in your navigation through a complex network of underground caves in complete darkness in an attempt to make it back to the surface. Your LIDAR scanner is said to produce millions of individual light-points, and paint a static, neon 3D image of the environments as you trek through the darkness. In these caves you soon realize everything is not as it seems though, and that you might not be alone.

Here's an official description via Introversion:

Regaining consciousness you smell the damp.  Opening your eyes you see the stone walls of the chamber flickering by the light of the fire; you stumble to your feet and kick a helmet clattering across the floor.  Slowly the ache in your head begins to subside and you notice the beginnings of a passage.  After a few steps the darkness consumes you.  Returning to the safely of the fire you see a LIDAR scanner on the floor - a trigger press results in a faint glow coming from inside the helmet.  You put the helmet on, adjust the beam-width and proceed into the abyss….

Creative Director at Introversion Chris Delay accompanied the announcement with the following statement:

"Scanner Sombre is a total departure for us as a studio in terms of visual style and tone; it's almost a subversive game when you think about what people might expect from Introversion so we're really looking forward to hearing people's reactions when they can play it."

Introversion’s Managing Director, Mark Morris added:

"This is a very different experience to Prison Architect. It’s a shorter, but a more involved, claustrophobic game distilling a deep sense of unease into a single play session. It’s probably going to make you feel a bit uncomfortable.”

Scanner Sombre will cost $11.99 USD and be available on PC and Mac. It is Introversion's 6th game. Below, you can check out its announcement trailer and screenshots: