If you've ever wondered why your friends keep raving about a co-op puzzle game where the main mechanic is talking to each other via walkie-talkie, you're not alone. The We Were Here series has quietly built a devoted following since Rotterdam-based indie studio Total Mayhem Games released the original game for free on Steam back in 2017. Now, nearly a decade on, the studio has announced its most ambitious instalment yet.
We Were Here Tomorrow was officially revealed on 26 February 2026, and by the look of the announcement trailer, it represents a genuine departure from what came before. With more than 25 million players worldwide, the franchise has built its reputation on testing communication, trust, and friendship in inventive ways. That foundation remains, but the setting is entirely new.
Previous entries planted players inside a frozen medieval castle, piecing together an intricate mythology centred on Castle Rock. Tomorrow trades all of that for something far sleeker. We Were Here Tomorrow marks the series' biggest shift yet, transporting players to a retro-futuristic facility and introducing unique character abilities, the series' signature walkie-talkie communication, and a fresh narrative direction. That facility is known as the Norcek complex, a place described as filled with strange technology and unsettling secrets.
The core loop will feel familiar to anyone who has played a We Were Here game before. You and your partner wake up inside a mysterious facility, surrounded by strange machinery, with a calm, confident voice guiding you through a series of assignments. Often separated and equipped with different tools, players must rely on walkie-talkies to communicate clearly and work together, with each assignment introducing asymmetrical puzzles that can only be solved through cooperation. Crucially, We Were Here Tomorrow is its own standalone entry in the series, and does not have story links to the previous games, which means newcomers can step straight in without any homework.
The studio behind it all has come a long way from its origins. The first We Were Here was developed by Total Mayhem Games as part of a student project at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, which was a student entrant for the Independent Games Festival 2018 and won the Best Indie Game Award in 2017 at the Indigo showcase in the Netherlands, before being released for free on Steam in February 2017. The studio has since grown into a professional team of 40-plus game enthusiasts.
The independent studio launched in 2017 with the free We Were Here game on Steam and has since evolved the series with the releases of We Were Here Too in 2018, We Were Here Together in 2019, We Were Here Forever in 2022, and We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip in 2023. Each entry refined the formula in a slightly different direction. Forever, in particular, won praise for being the series' most polished and narrative-rich instalment, earning an approval rating of 93 per cent on Steam according to reporting by md-eksperiment.org.
For Australian co-op gaming fans, the practical details are worth knowing. We Were Here Tomorrow is coming to PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, with crossplay available across platforms. You can add the game to your wishlist now on Steam, PlayStation Store, or the Microsoft Store, though a firm release date has not yet been set beyond a 2026 window.
The appeal of the series has always rested on something deceptively simple: two people, separated by a screen or a wall, having to actually talk to each other to make progress. In an era when multiplayer gaming often means a dozen strangers shooting at each other, there is something genuinely refreshing about a game whose entire design premise is built around listening carefully and describing what you see. If the new setting delivers on its promise, We Were Here Tomorrow could be the most compelling reason yet to rope a friend into a co-op session.