Planned Release Date: Q4 2026

About This Game

YOU ARE ARMED. YOU ARE STILL A DUCK.

Someone took the egg.

TIDE OR HIDE is a 1-4 player co-op survival game about a duck family with a hatchet, a stolen egg to find, and ninety-nine nights to get through.

You are small. Four armed hunters standing over your camp at midnight is not a fight you win by walking at them. What decides that fight is water - deep water is a wall nothing on four legs will cross, and every night it drains away.

Day lasts three minutes. Night lasts ninety seconds. Whatever you need after dark, you needed before it.

CUT WOOD. KEEP THE FIRE. COUNT THE DAYS.

Day one hands you a hatchet and a simple instruction: cut trees, gather firewood.

That is the loop, and it never really changes. Wood feeds the fire at camp. Branches and scrap feed the workbench. Fish and rabbits feed you. And every trip out has to end before the water leaves, because the way back is made of water.

Meanwhile the counter at the top of the screen keeps going down. Three days until the raid. Two. One.

THE MAP DRAINS ONE PIECE AT A TIME

Night does not lower the water evenly. Each region of the island has its own drain schedule, and you learn them the hard way.

• The outer marsh goes dry first. Whatever you were doing out there, you are now doing it on foot.
  
• The reed maze and the mud island follow, closing your cover a minute before you wanted it closed.
  
• Your return channel holds the longest - and then it is gone too, with fifteen seconds of night still to go.
  
• The camp pool never fully empties. It is the last water on the island. It is also the first place anything hungry will look.

Rain delays the drain in some regions. Fog hides you and hides what is behind you. Knowing which channel dies at which second is the difference between a route home and a very long walk.

YOU KNOW WHEN THEY ARE COMING

The raid is on the clock from days out. Day seven, clear skies, one day until the raid. The countdown sits at the top of the screen the entire time, and then it is tomorrow.

Everything between now and then is preparation. Stack the firewood. Fill the shared materials. Craft the light. Arm whoever is going to be standing in the open when the water drops.

Then the tide goes out, the hunters walk in, and they start taking the camp apart. Kill or drive off every one of them before dawn and you keep what you gathered. Leave a single one standing when the light comes back and they walk out with your firewood - and the firewood was the whole point.

WHAT IS OUT THERE

Everything on this island can be killed. Bring the right tool and pick the right ground.

• Foxes - Track you across exposed mud. They will not follow you into deep water, so fight them where you choose, not where they find you.
  
• Dogs - The hunters bring them. Faster than a fox, and they do not lose interest.
  
• Hunters - Human, armed and organized. They come in waves, they come for the stockpile, and they fight back.
  
• Rabbits - The one thing on this island smaller than you. Food, if you are quick.

THE ONE YOU CANNOT KILL

There is a woman in a white dress who walks the drained ground after dark. She does not run. She does not stop. Nothing in your hands does anything to her.

What stops her is light. Hold the flashlight on her and she is pinned where she stands - and the flashlight holds for fifteen seconds before it needs ten to recover. That is the whole negotiation: fifteen seconds standing still, or fifteen seconds running.

Decide before she is close enough to matter.

BUILD WHAT TELLS YOU HOW LONG YOU HAVE

Branches and scrap metal go into the workbench, and what the workbench mostly gives back is information.

• Clock - How much of the day is actually left.
  
• Compass - Which way camp is from wherever you ended up.
  
• Marsh Map - Unlocked for the entire team at once, not just for whoever built it.
  
• Flashlight - The only thing that stops what cannot be killed.
  
• Bag - Carry more of what you found before the route closes.
  
• Spear - For the things a hatchet has to get too close to reach.

On an island where the ground moves on a timetable, knowing the timetable is the upgrade.

ONE CAMP, ONE STOCKPILE, FOUR DUCKS

• 1-4 players online - Host a session and invite straight from your Steam friends list.
  
• Proximity voice chat, built in - You hear the people near you. Splitting up has a cost, and you can hear it happen.
  
• One fire, one workbench, one pile of materials - Every craft spends from the same shared stock, so what gets built is a decision the whole team lives with.
  
• Shared exploration map - The map fills in as the team walks it. Landmarks, chests and pings are visible to everyone, and the fog you cleared stays cleared for the others.
  
• Pass the egg - Carrying slows you down and takes your hands, and your hands should be holding the light. Hand it off mid-run and let the free duck fight.
  
• No classes - Anyone can gather, craft, carry, fight or hold a light. Who does what is decided per night.
  
• Playable solo - Nothing is locked behind a second player. More ducks means more hands, more noise and more to lose.

NINETY-NINE NIGHTS

Every day is one tide. Ninety-nine of them stand between your camp and the end of the season.

You will not get through them by being the strongest thing on the island. You will get through them by knowing which channel drains at which second, and being on the right side of it when it does.

FEATURES

• Three-minute day, ninety-second night, on a seeded wetland island
  
• Region-by-region tide draining that rewrites routes, cover and danger every night
  
• Chop, gather, fish and hunt to keep a fire burning and a workbench fed
  
• Hunter raids you can see coming days in advance, and lose real supplies to
  
• Foxes, dogs and armed hunters you can fight - and one thing you cannot
  
• A flashlight with fifteen seconds of answer, and ten seconds of nothing
  
• Craft clocks, compasses, a team-wide map, bags and spears from a shared stock
  
• Hunger, stamina and dive breath to manage while the clock runs
  
• 1-4 player online co-op with proximity voice and a shared exploration map
  
• Full solo play

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Generative AI technology is used in a supplementary capacity during the creation of some user interface assets.
Any such assets are replaced through our production pipeline by our art and development teams, ensuring they meet our quality standards and creative direction.