Smilegate said on Thursday it will globally release the Korean-style psychological horror game "Alleyway: Guiheun" ("Alleyway") with developer AIXLAB and co-publisher Thermite Games.

The global launch comes about nine months after the game was first introduced domestically in October last year through its indie game platform Stove. Smilegate will step up efforts to target overseas users via Steam, along with a large update for the global version.

"Alleyway" is a first-person psychological horror title in which the protagonist, Soyeon, tries to escape after a familiar back alley she passed through every day turns into a strange space. It recreates the gradual distortion of Korea's narrow alleyways, familiar neighborhood shops and everyday sounds with realistic graphics, maximizing the fear that comes from the space itself.

The gameplay is also differentiated by combining Korean-style occult elements. The only tool given to users is a smartphone, and they must use the camera to determine whether a strange phenomenon is "Guiheun," a supernatural trace that cannot exist, or "Heokkaebi," ominous but explainable.

The result is sent by text message to a shaman grandmother to check the correct answer. The more correct answers users get, the closer they come to the truth, but each wrong answer triggers a chase sequence in which a ghost approaches. A total of 64 strange phenomena are placed in the game, making accurate judgment at every moment directly tied to survival.

The global version fully reflects user feedback accumulated during the domestic service period, significantly raising the game's level of completion. It overhauled the level structure to reduce fatigue from repeated play and expanded save points to lower the burden of trying again. It also adjusted puzzle difficulty and accessibility.

In the stealth and chase system that had previously been criticized, it newly added a "running" function to increase tension and upgraded the ghost's reactions and depiction of its form. It also added an "epilogue mode" that can be newly enjoyed after clearing story mode and restructured various hallucinations and event direction more diversely to expand the content volume.

Smilegate has established support for a total of six languages, including Korean, English, Japanese, simplified and traditional Chinese, and Russian, to improve accessibility for overseas users.