Undying Flower Launches on Steam May 16th

A dark journey through memory, grief, and the need to rewrite what can’t be undone

[Indonesia] April 23, 2025 — What if one could rewrite the moment they regret most? Would it change what happened, or simply how they live with it? Indonesian indie studio Calcatz, in partnership with publishing platform indie.io, will release their debut game Undying Flower on Steam May 16, inviting players into a surreal story of grief, memory, and forgiveness. An emotionally charged, dark interactive narrative game about trauma, memory, and the longing for self-forgiveness, Undying Flower follows one woman’s desperate attempt to change what can’t be undone.

Faced with the question, “Would you forgive yourself, even if you killed someone you love?”, players take on the role of Nala, a young woman undergoing a secret experimental treatment designed to unlock painful memories long buried. Guided by a mysterious entity known only as The Flower, players will enter a surreal, emotion-driven world where reality bends to memory and meaning. What begins as an attempt to understand Nala’s grief becomes an unexpected descent into a past she’s tried to forget, including the haunting possibility that she caused the very loss she cannot let go of: the death of her grandfather.

As players navigate this liminal space, they relive key moments from the perspectives of both Nala and her grandfather, revisiting their connection, miscommunications, and the wounds left behind. These moments are not just viewed; they are felt and re-experienced, offering conflicting truths and emotional nuance from both perspectives. Through dialogue and careful observation, players must piece together what happened between them: the joy, the sorrow, and everything in between.

But memory is not static. Players are given the power to alter the course of these memories, adjusting conversations, shifting emotional tone, and testing possible outcomes. The game invites repeated attempts to change the past. These branching paths allow players to simulate different outcomes, testing and re-testing how even small emotional changes might reshape what once was. Players must search for a version of the story that might bring closure, if not forgiveness.

Undying Flower blends traditional storytelling with surreal, symbolic worldbuilding shaped by the developers’ own cultural roots. As an Indonesian team, Calcatz drew direct inspiration from Tari Topeng, a traditional masked dance where performers use movement and facial coverings to convey deeply emotional stories. That tradition is reimagined in haunting detail, where masks appear throughout the world not to conceal emotion, but to reveal it. Fused to statues and figures by inky black tendrils, each mask reflects the emotional state of those trapped in memory. It’s a striking reinterpretation of cultural heritage, transformed by the team into a powerful visual metaphor for vulnerability, grief, and the emotions we try to bury.

Underscoring the experience is an original soundtrack composed by Michael W. Pflug, featuring guitar and vocal performances by Stef Amadeus and Eien Nagi, with Eien also serving as the game’s director. The music is both intimate and overwhelming, crafted to blur the line between sound and story. From ambient echoes to soul-baring vocal tracks, the score pulses with the weight of grief, uncertainty, and fleeting hope. The music of Undying Flower doesn’t just accompany the narrative—it is the narrative.

“Undying Flower is a spark of our journey to express strong human emotions through what we believe is the ultimate form of art: video games,” says Game Director Eien Nagi. “We believe that painting, music, literature, and film all tell human stories, each shaped by culture and experience. But when you add interactivity, it becomes something deeper. This isn’t just a surreal story about regret. It’s about how a single moment between two people who love each other can change everything. In a way, Undying Flower is also the story of our journey as developers and artists.”

Undying Flower offers players a story that is both deeply personal and universally human, one that does not shy away from the discomfort of grief, the complexity of memory, or the quiet desperation for forgiveness. Rooted in cultural identity and shaped by lived emotion, it invites players not to escape, but to confront the moments they wish they could undo.

Wishlist and follow Undying Flower on Steam ahead of its May 16 release, and stay connected with the developers on X/Twitter.