Urban Decay

Halden has been sealed for fourteen months.
Nobody gets out.

  1. Day 0Halden General admits eleven patients with a fever nobody can name.
  2. Day 11The bridges are blown. The Cordon seals the city.
  3. Day 20The evacuation trains stop running.
  4. Month 6The last broadcast from outside goes quiet.
  5. Month 14The metro still runs. Empty trains, lights on, announcing stations to nobody.
  6. TodayEveryone else wanted out. The Cordon waved you in through the north gate.

The opening film

Eighty-six seconds of Halden.

The film that plays when the game starts, drawn in code like everything else in it. It gives a little away.

Before

Who were you?

Eleven lives to start from, each with its own first day and what was in the car. Pick a strength and admit a flaw. The city will find it.

Halden quarantine registryForm Q-11

Name

Mara Voss

Occupation

Drifter

A pistol, a day of food and the habit of checking every drawer. The balanced start: the one to learn the city with.

Carrying

  • 24
  • 2
  • 2
  • 40
  • 2

You were built to run, and you still can. Everything you touch makes a noise.

StatusInside the fence

After dark

The sick hunt by sound.

Move your light across the street. Click to make a noise. See what comes. Then try it in winter: the snow keeps every track.

The city

Halden, redrawn.

Every run lays the city out again. The districts keep their names, and nothing else stays where you left it.

Sector

Greenridge

the Ridge

Commuter streets up the hill. The emptiest, quietest part of the city.

Threat

Its light at night

RoadCampWater

On the air

Halden is still broadcasting.

Eleven stations on your phone and on every radio set in the city, playing by day and heard down the street. Switch it on and turn the dial. Not everything on it is music.

FM 88.9

WKHL 88.9

Heartland rock

“The last signal in Halden”

Turn it on, then drag the dial or use the arrow keys. The songs are the ones the game plays, and every station is live: you tune in wherever it is.

Places people still talk about

Everyone has a story about one of these.

Fifteen places in Halden were built by hand, each with its own layout, its own story and something worth the trip. We will tell you about thirteen of them. None of their stories end well.

  1. 01

    Halden General Hospital

    The ER held out longest. The pharmacy was what they held it for.

    the Core
  2. 02

    HPD Precinct 4

    They sealed the armoury to stop a panic. Then there was nobody left to open it.

    Old Town
  3. 03

    St. Brennan's Church

    They rang the bell so the living could find them. So could everything else.

    Old Town
  4. 04

    Cordon Checkpoint 7

    The Cordon pulled out and left the lights on. Everything still comes to the light.

    the Point
  5. 05

    Greenridge Elementary

    They kept the gym lights on for the one boy who never came back. Then the fence came down.

    Greenridge
  6. 06

    The Galleria

    They brought the shutters down with a hundred and forty people inside, and called it sheltering in place.

    the Core
  7. 07

    Halden County Correctional

    The Cordon took the guards for the wire and told the warden to keep every door shut. He did.

    the Yards
  8. 08

    WKHL 88.9 Transmitter

    For three months the whole city listened to one woman and a generator. Then the tank ran dry.

    Greenridge
  9. 09

    Halden Water Works

    They kept the city's water clean until the water started growing.

    the Yards
  10. 10

    The North Gate

    The Cordon still hold the road in. They will let anyone into Halden. They let nobody out.

    the outskirts
  11. 11

    The West Gate

    The crowd came for the west gate on day twelve. The Cordon shut it and drove the city's buses across the road to hold them back.

    the outskirts
  12. 12

    The East Gate

    The Cordon sealed the east gate on day eleven: concrete, tank traps and wire, and orders to shoot anyone at the wire.

    the outskirts
  13. 13

    The South Gate

    The south gate's gatehouse came down into its passage in the first winter's storm. What was on the coast road that night is still under it.

    the outskirts
  14. 14

    ████████ ██████

    ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████.

    Withheld
  15. 15

    ████████ ██████

    ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████.

    Withheld

01

Search everything.

Every drawer, locker and glovebox. Searching takes time, and it is never quite silent.

02

Stay alive.

A body in seven parts, 440 points in all. A hurt leg limps, a hurt arm shakes your aim. Lose the head or the thorax and the run is over. Hunger, thirst and the Bloom do the rest.

03

Stay quiet.

Sneak, keep to the dark, throw a bottle the other way. A gunshot carries for streets, and something always hears it.

A life in the city

Stay long enough and it becomes yours.

Surviving the first night is the easy part. What you make of Halden after that is up to you.

  1. A place of your own

    Claim a building, board it up, build beds, storage and a workbench. Add a rain collector, a generator and a garden. Then find out who heard the generator.

  2. Colours to wear

    Join a faction and rise through its ranks: its duties, its perks, its quartermaster. Cross one and its gates shut, the bounty goes up and someone with a name comes looking.

  3. Company

    Recruit a survivor who follows your orders. Earn a dog.

  4. The year turns

    Four seasons with their own days and weather. Snow keeps every track, yours and theirs. Floods close the crossings; summer fields catch fire.

  5. Quiet, or loud

    Sneak, keep to the dark, throw a bottle, take someone from behind. Or a molotov, a pipe bomb, a charge through the wall.

  6. Four of you

    Co-op for up to four: a crew base, pings, quick-chat, and a place held for anyone whose line drops.

5

ways to leave Halden, or to stop wanting to.
Most people never find one. We are not telling you what they are.

Other survivors

Read the walls.

Someone holds every street, and they mark it. Learn the signs before you walk down one.

Cordon

What is left of Joint Task Force CORDON, under Colonel Okafor. Still holding the wire on orders that stopped coming months ago.

Radio call sign: Gatehouse

The Kings

A dockworkers’ crew turned gang, led by Marcus “King” Delaney. Fuel, protection, and a tax on anything that moves.

Look for the crowns

Children of the Bloom

Mother Maren Voss calls the infection the Garden, and turning “being planted”. Her people walk among the sick. Nobody knows why they are left alone.

Green spirals, candles, shrines

Scavs

Loose bands with no leader and no rules. Weak one at a time, and they are everywhere.

Arrows and tallies

The Exchange

The Osei, Brannigan and Nowak families of Old Town. At their tables, cash still means something.

Chalk means safe to trade

The infected

Nobody says zombie.

People call them the sick. Bloomers. The turned. Hover to bring one into the light. None of them have a health bar over their heads.

BelowYears of growth in the sewers make worse things. Nobody who has been down will describe them.

In development

Still being built.

Everything above runs today. This is what is being built into Halden next, on the long road to 1.0.

  1. 01

    An armoury

    Mods on a workbench, twenty more guns, bows and crossbows, and ammunition worth choosing.

  2. 02

    Roads worth driving

    Traffic and pursuers, garages and upgrades, bikes and boats, and a camper van that is a home.

  3. 03

    People who remember

    Twenty people with names, histories and stories of their own, who remember what you did.

  4. 04

    A settlement of your own

    Survivors who come to live with you, jobs they get on with, and walls worth a siege.

  5. 05

    More city

    A university, a stadium, a military base, twenty more places, and the tunnels on foot.

  6. 06

    What hunts you

    New strains as the Bloom advances, hunters with lairs, and a city that burns and floods.

  7. 07

    Every run different

    Settings for everything, challenge starts and a daily seed.

  8. 08

    Halden on air

    Voices for the city, a score that follows you, and bulletins between the songs.

  9. 09

    Servers

    Dedicated servers for up to fifty survivors in one city.

Questions

Before you go in.

Anything else: write to us.

What is Urban Decay?

A top-down survival game set in Halden, a coastal city that has been sealed off for fourteen months. You scavenge, build a place to hold, deal with the factions that run what is left, and try to stay alive among the sick.

When can I play it?

Soon. The game is being played and built every day, and the first public release is on its way. The download button at the bottom of this page goes live the day it is out.

What does it cost?

Nothing. Urban Decay is free.

What do I need to run it?

A 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC, and a keyboard and mouse or a controller.

Can I play with friends?

Yes. Co-op for up to four, with a shared crew base, pings and quick-chat. Host a game for your friends with a friend code, or list it in the server browser for anyone to join.

Do I need an account?

Yes, a game account made in the launcher: a username and a password, nothing else. We never ask for your email address, your real name or payment details. You can also make one, and look after it, on the Account page of this site. The privacy notice says exactly what the account keeps.

How does it update?

The launcher installs the game and keeps it up to date. What changed in each update is in the launcher, not on this site.

Who makes it?

TPMT Games, the games label of the band The Post Modern Truth. Every sprite in the game is drawn in code.

I found a bug. Where do I send it?

Use the problem report in the game or the launcher: it sends the game version and, if you choose, the end of the log. Or write to ThePostModernTruth@gmail.com.

  • 4seasons, and snow that keeps every track
  • 7parts to a body, and each one can fail
  • 11stations still on the dial
  • 0health bars over anyone’s head

“This train is not in service. Please stand clear of the doors.”Halden Metro announcement, still playing

Urban Decay

Coming to Windows, free. The first public release is on its way.

Download for Windows

Not available yet · Windows 10/11 · 64-bit · keyboard and mouse or a controller · free

Made by TPMT Games, the games label of The Post Modern Truth. Every sprite is drawn in code.