MOVE 01
Pull it taut
Reel in with Q or walk away from your team until the cable turns violet. Then jump: the stored tension slingshots you across the chasm.
Free prototype · Windows · 1–4 player co-op
TETHERBOUND
One cable. Four Resonators. Hold the line or fall together into the Drift.
Join the community for playtest invites01 The Tether
One cable holds everyone together.
That's the problem.
Every Resonator is clipped to the same plasma cable, and the cable runs back to your flying base. It's how you launch, climb, haul and solve puzzles. It's also how one bad jump drags the whole squad off the edge.
- SlackSags in the wind. Safe.
- ChargedTaut and humming. Jump to launch.
- CriticalAnchors start to fail.
MOVE 02
Wrap the world
The cable catches on pillars, spires and golden tuning forks. Wind it around a fork and pull to make it ring. Ring all three and a Harmonic Core surfaces.
MOVE 03
Topple titans
Obsidian titans guard the best cores. Lasso one, keep the line tight, and bring it down.
MOVE 04
Ride the storm
On the Obsidian Spires, lightning overcharges your cable. A charged catapult throws you further than you should probably go.
02 Chain reaction
If one falls,
everyone falls.
When a Resonator slips off an island, their weight drags the rest of the line after them. Whoever slams their magnetic anchor down first saves the squad. Press Shift. Hold on.
03 The Drift
A shattered world, held up by a dying frequency.
Floating islands drift through an electromagnetic storm. Every run generates a new archipelago around your Ark. Harvest Harmonic Cores to push the storm back before it swallows you.
Obsidian Spires
Low gravity, glass spires and lightning that charges your cable. Slumbering titans stand between you and the cores.
Golden Resonance Ruins
Ancient tuning-fork monoliths ring out chords when the cable pulls them. Solve the chord and a core rises from the ground.
The Ark
Your base flies. Your cable comes with it.
The Ark is home, respawn point and the root of the tether. Take the helm with F and fly the whole squad to the next island, while everyone dangles below.
Procedural islands
Seeded, chunked and endless. Every peer builds the same world from the same seed.
A soundtrack that listens
Every note is synthesized live. Cable tension opens the filter; cores add melody; the storm adds sub-bass.
Co-op for 1–4
Host a world, join by IP or invite code, or play solo tied to the Ark.
Learn by playing
An interactive tutorial walks you from your first jump to flying the Ark.
The storm clock
Collect five cores before the storm reaches 100% or get recalled to the Ark.
Built with Godot
Hand-made shaders, procedural meshes and physics. No store assets.
04 Media
Straight from the game.
Every image and clip on this page is captured gameplay. No renders, no mock-ups.
05 Download
Play TETHERBOUND free on Windows.
This is an early prototype, built and updated by one developer. It's free, it's playable solo or with up to three friends, and your feedback decides what gets built next.
Download for WindowsFree · 36.3 MB- Unzip the folder anywhere.
- Run
TETHERBOUND.exe. Keep the.pckfile next to it. - If Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”, click More info → Run anyway. The build isn't code-signed yet.
- Pick Solo Mode to start the tutorial.
- Build
- Prototype · 11 Nov 2026
- File
- TETHERBOUND-Windows-x64.zip
- Size
- 36.3 MB (104 MB unzipped)
- System
- Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit
Vulkan-capable graphics card - Players
- 1–4 · solo, host or join
- Price
- Free
- SHA-256
80a7622caf95859c7f1a38ce4e16010726e947242df62f7ce134f463ca759841
06 Community
Join the Resonators.
Get playtest invites for new builds, short devlog updates, and the community invite as soon as it opens. Email only when there's something worth playing.
- Early builds before they hit this page
- A vote on what gets built next
- Co-op partners to tie yourself to
07 Solo dev
Made by one developer.
TETHERBOUND is written, designed, scored and shipped by a single person. Every mesh, shader and sound in the game is generated in code, which is why it can change fast.
Playable right now
- Solo mode with an interactive tutorial
- Online co-op for up to four players
- Two biomes, titans, monolith puzzles and the storm clock
- A flyable Ark and a cable that wraps around the world
FAQ
Is it really free?
Yes. The current prototype is free to download and play.
How do I play with friends?
One player picks Host World. Friends pick Join and enter the host's IP address, or the invite code from the host's menu. The host needs UDP port 7777 open. Invite codes work on the same network or over a VPN such as Tailscale or ZeroTier.
Windows says the file is unsafe. Is it?
The build isn't code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns about it like most indie builds. Click More info → Run anyway. You can check the download against the SHA-256 checksum in the download section.
What do I need to run it?
Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and a graphics card that supports Vulkan. Most cards from the last eight years do.
The cable is tangled. Help?
Press X to release your cable. It drops every wrap and runs straight again. A cable that stays jammed at full tension also slips free by itself after a few seconds.
Mac, Linux or Steam Deck?
Not yet. Leave your email and pick what you play on in the idea box. Requests decide which platform comes next.