Smilegate is joining forces with developer AIXLAB and co-publisher Thermite Games to bring the Korean psychological horror title The Alley to the global stage. It has been nine months since the game first haunted the domestic market, and now, it is finally ready to reach a global audience via Steam.

The Alley is a first-person psychological horror experience where you play as So-yeon, trapped in an all-too-familiar back alley that has twisted into something truly bizarre. You will need to rely on a smartphone camera to capture anomalies and decide whether they are genuine spectral 'traces' or mere hallucinations. You must text your shaman grandmother to verify your findings; however, choose poorly, and you will find the entity creeping closer to you. There are 64 distinct anomalies to track down.

To capture the chilling dread of a mundane walk home, the developer has painstakingly recreated the sights, sounds, and local storefronts of a typical Korean alleyway. The game excels at warping these ordinary spaces, creating a suffocating sense of pressure as you endure the inevitable chase sequences that follow every discovery.

This global release is not just a port; it incorporates months of player feedback to refine the experience. The level structure has been overhauled to cut down on repetitive fatigue, and more save points have been added for your convenience. The developer also introduced a sprint function to sharpen stealth and chase mechanics, while tweaking puzzle difficulty. A new epilogue mode awaits those who finish the story, and the visual design of the ghosts has received a significant upgrade.

The game supports a total of six languages: Korean, English, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Russian.