In indie games, where story-driven experiences continue to entice players on PC and consoles, indie developer InEv Games is stepping into the spotlight with Livber: Smoke and Mirrors. This upcoming psychological horror visual novel draws massive motivation from genre-defining titles like Dieco Elysium by blending heavy, branching storytelling with themes of obsession, fractured love, and horror. This game is scheduled for release on October 1, 2025, 2025 which is just a few hours away.
Livber promises a horror choice-driven journey that has the potential to rival some of the recent games like Pentiment, As Dusk Falls, and Oxenfree II. After experiencing the demo on Steam, I think we will see a handmade gem and you should definitely give it a try. From its unique poetic texts to its atmospheric art, there are multiple reasons why Livber: Smoke and Mirrors is going to leave a mark of its own in the indie game industry.
Livber: Smoke and Mirrors – gameplay overview and more
Gameplay Overview
Livber: Smoke and Mirrors is a text-based interactive game where players get the chance to choose their own adventure, which emphasizes story depth over traditional gameplay. Also, the core gameplay revolves around the players’ choices, which will reshape the story, ensuring no two playthroughs are ever the same. The playable demo version starts with a scene where the player receives a cryptic letter from their presumed dead lover, Lilith which is split into eight drastically different endings, which are further spread into three acts.
The gameplay will lead to different paths depending on simple decisions like which door to open or which questions to ask; anything can lead the player into a deeper, crumbling identity.
After playing the demo, the experience that I felt was intimate and calculated; more like Disco Elysium’s dialogue trees, but here it’s more like infused with gothic romanticism. Each and every decision carries a weight, which can alter not just the immediate outcome but the entire storyline. Fans who appreciate the ideology of branching paths will get to see how a single line of dialogue can change the fate of the story,
The game has over 60,000 words( out of which 10,000 will be voiced), and there are no combat or puzzle elements like the traditional games; instead, the “gameplay” is psychological unraveling, where emotion fuels progression. As of writing this piece, the game is available only on PC via Steam, while in the future, there will be a full release supporting macOS, SteamOS, and Linux. Although the demo is simple and direct in its initial act, it further hints at the full game’s reactive world where player feedback might even shape post-launch evolutions.
Story and Settings of Livber: Smoke and Mirrors
The game is set in a fractured mindscape within the universe of Haia. The story explores a dark tale of love that turned into obsession and madness. Initially, the title starts after five years when Lilith(the previous lover who vanished without a trace) contacts the player out of nowhere with a chilling letter, “I will give birth to our creation”. This letter draws the player back to the old house on a rainy night, where the player will confront their re-surfacing memories of betrayal, passion, and unhealed wounds. The narrative style “a crumbling identity whispered apart by a letter” unfolds into three separate acts, steeped in a heavy atmosphere, where players are invited to untangle a world of horror.
The game’s tone is more psychological than traditional jump scares, and with strange characters like Yel, a winged cat that has already made its unique impression on the fans’ imaginations, by adding mythic elements to the gothic horror. InEv Games has prioritised player agency, where every choice can make a ripple through the different factions of memory, proving that emotional depth might be able to rival graphical representation. The demo also managed to make us question the reality without ruining the ending, more like the buried sins that will rise in the full game’s climax.
Visuals, Audio, and Technical Aspects
Livber: Smoke and Mirrors will be featuring handcrafted artistry, with over 20 original visual scenes and more than 50 musical pieces, and all of these amazing audio and visuals are produced in-house without the use of AI or stock assets. The art style that is featured in the title blends the intellectual density of Disco Elysium with foggy gothic romanticism by using hand-drawn backdrops and parallax animations to create a stylized, immersive depth. In the demo version, the illustrations represent a haunting, minimalistic atmosphere that pairs perfectly with the text-heavy interface.
The audio design is a standout, with its haunting soundscapes; all of these original compositions are by Uluğ Kaymak. The Devs even created custom button clicks, which are recorded from scratch. The sound track was created with mixes of ambient dread with emotional swells that will amplify the psychological tension to much higher level, that is why headphones are recommended for full immersion. Out of the 60,000 words, 10,000 are voiced which will add another layer of emotional depth to the surreal dialogues.
Expectations of Livber: Smoke and Mirrors
With the fusion of Disco Elysium-style lyricism and horror, Livber: Smoke and Mirrors feels like a new evolution in text-based horror adventures. InEv Games’ small and dedicated team focused on storytelling with known talents like lead Osman Karakus, narrative designer Oğuzhan Açıkalın, and localizer Muh. Semih Çavuş, composer, Uluğ Kaymak, and finally, visual designer Mihriban (Lyreria) Korkmaz, together created a shared vision of deeply immersive, emotionally intelligent tales. The game has already gone viral on social media, and that sparked in the Disco Elysium community as well, which was further amplified by positive reviews from Steam, which suggest a bright future for this upcoming game.
If you’re looking for psychological horror, then go ahead and wishlist it on Steam right now, and while you wait for the full release, download the available demo version to experience Act 1. This title has the potential to redefine the psychological horror for the indie fans.
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