Sobakistan opens Steam Playtest sign-ups: 27 ways to get arrested and a Tokyo Game Show push

A satirical dog-state with 27 ways to get arrested? I’m listening.

Sobakistan: The Land of Dogs just dropped a new gameplay trailer, opened public Playtest sign-ups for October 2025, and announced an official delegation to Tokyo Game Show 2025. The pitch is simple and nasty in the best way: a pixel-art, darkly comic totalitarian “dog-state” where nearly anything might get you thrown in a cell. The trailer claims 27 distinct arrest triggers in the demo alone. That number made me perk up because it signals actual systemic teeth, not just vibes-and-monologue satire.

• Public Playtest sign-ups are live now; Playtest runs October 2025.
• Trailer reveals an arrest-focused core loop with 27 demo triggers.
• Official TGS 2025 presence: Hall 11, Indie Area, Booth E62, with an offline demo and meetups.
• Full Steam launch planned for 2026; console versions to follow.

Breaking down the announcement

The studio, Terletski Games (founded by author-artist-publisher Vitalii Terletskii, now operating out of Tokyo), is positioning Sobakistan as a narrative adventure with JRPG-style systems, dialogue puzzles, exploration, and meta layers-framed by authoritarian absurdity. You rotate through six playable characters, each living under the same paranoid rules. The hook is the “Minesweeper in a totalitarian anti-utopia” feel: you’re probing a grid of social landmines, testing boundaries, and learning what the regime considers illegal today.

The team is leaning into a satirical state-propaganda voice-complete with mock denials about the “deepfake” trailer depicting arbitrary arrests. It’s a smart tone set if the writing can carry it. We’ve seen post-Disco Elysium indies try for political satire and wind up as edgy wallpaper. The difference here could be the systemic layer: 27 arrest conditions is specific enough to matter, and if the game teaches you how you crossed the line, that’s compelling gameplay, not just flavor.

The real story is the arrest mechanic

Plenty of narrative games talk about “tension,” but they rarely build rules that make you sweat on every click. Papers, Please did it with fines, detentions, and moral math. Beholder made surveillance feel complicit. Pathologic turned scarcity and hostility into an atmosphere you could choke on. Sobakistan’s “any step could land you in prison” mantra lives or dies on three things:

• Clarity: Are players shown what they did wrong, or is it pure trial-and-error?
• Fail-forward: Do arrests create new story paths, or just force reloads?
• Escalation: Does the system grow in interesting ways beyond the demo’s 27 triggers?

If arrests are telegraphed just enough to teach you the state’s absurd logic, the loop becomes deliciously oppressive. If not, it’s save-scumming purgatory. The pitch hints at branching narrative and multiple endings, which suggests arrests might be narrative pivots rather than dead ends. That’s the right move. Give me consequences, not simple game over screens.

TGS 2025 presence says they’re serious

Terletski Games will bring an offline demo to Tokyo Game Show 2025 (Hall 11, Indie Area, Booth E62) and host meetups with Creative Director Vitalii Terletskii, Visual Designer Katya, and the Lead Developer. For a micro-indie, showing at TGS isn’t just marketing theater; it’s a feedback gauntlet. If the arrest system frustrates or confuses, they’ll hear it from a global crowd in real time. If it clicks, word of mouth will do more than any cheeky in-universe press statement.

What gamers need to know before the Playtest

The Playtest is limited and slated for October 2025. Expect a systems-first demo designed to validate the arrest mechanic and the multi-protagonist structure. I’ll be looking for:

• Readable rules: UI cues, NPC tells, or world signage that hint at boundaries without spoiling them.
• Autosaves and checkpoints: Let arrests branch the story, not wipe half an hour of progress.
• Character contrast: Six perspectives should offer different risks and privileges under the regime.
• Writing with bite: Satire needs specificity-petty bureaucrats, contradictory laws, hollow slogans that map to actual mechanics.

On the content side, the team cites inspirations like Papers, Please, Disco Elysium, Inscryption, and Ib. That’s a lot of tonal ground—from bureaucratic dread to meta-horror to cult RPG writing. Ambitious cross-pollination is great, but the game will need a clear identity: not just quippy nihilism with retro pixels. Being based on the original comic “Sobakistan” could help anchor the world’s lore and tone.

Value check: launch plan and platforms

Sobakistan targets a 2026 release on Steam, with console ports planned after. For players, that means two things: time for iteration (good) and the usual indie risk of scope creep (less good). If the team keeps the arrest system tight and the narrative branches coherent, a staggered console rollout is fine. If they balloon features to chase every inspiration listed, the sharp, teachable systems that make this premise sing could get lost in the noise.

Why this could land—if the systems and story dance

This caught my attention because it promises something many political indies dodge: enforceable rules that shape player behavior. The best satire in games isn’t just in dialogue; it’s in how the world punishes you for obeying logic while the state obeys none. If Sobakistan’s 27 arrest triggers are just the opening move, and if every “lesson” you learn about the regime carries into later chapters with six distinct protagonists, this could be the rare narrative game where dread isn’t a mood—it’s a mechanic you can map, exploit, and fear.

TL;DR

Sobakistan is opening Playtest sign-ups for October 2025 with a trailer that shows 27 ways to get arrested in the demo. The team is bringing an offline build to TGS 2025 (Hall 11, E62) ahead of a planned 2026 PC launch and later console ports. If arrests create fail-forward storytelling instead of reload hell, this dog-state might have real bite.