Thera Bytes Secures Federal Funding to Develop Unreal Engine 5 Co-op Shooter EVAC
German indie studio Thera Bytes is restarting its direction with a new, Unreal Engine 5–powered tactical co-op shooter called EVAC, a project now backed by fresh federal funding as it takes shape near Munich and seeks a publishing partner to bring it to market.
EVAC: Unreal Engine 5 tactical co-op with a 2036 NATO backdrop
Thera Bytes is developing EVAC as a PC co-op multiplayer tactical shooter under the working name EVAC. The project is being built on Unreal Engine 5 and is designed around realism and “state-of-the-art gunplay.” The setting is described as the NATO eastern flank in a fictional year of 2036.
- Platform focus: PC
- Gameplay focus: co-op multiplayer tactical shooter built around realism
- Tech: Unreal Engine 5
- Setting: NATO eastern flank, fictional 2036
- Project aim: “state-of-the-art gunplay” and an advanced injury model
Federal backing and earlier pre-production support
Funding for the EVAC restart is coming from Germany’s federal research ministry. In March, it approved 601,923 € for Thera Bytes’ subsidiary SimLand. The ministry is also investing a total of 600,000 € into Thera Bytes GmbH as part of the broader push behind the studio’s new direction.
- March approval: 601,923 € for SimLand (Thera Bytes subsidiary)
- Earlier step: 120,000 € already invested into pre-production
- Current investment headline: 600,000 € invested by the federal research ministry into Thera Bytes GmbH
Beyond the technical and financial work, the EVAC team is also looking for a publishing partner to handle marketing and distribution.
Thera Bytes restarts after a serious-games background
EVAC is being framed as a restart for Thera Bytes, an eight-person studio that is shifting genres and reorganizing itself in the process—organizationally, in terms of content, and strategically. To keep its cost structure manageable, the studio is operating with a remote approach.
The company previously pursued a serious-games concept under the idea of “Turning Play Into Health,” which also explains the origin of the studio’s name. Over time, it moved more clearly into entertainment through building projects such as Zombie Cure Lab.
Leadership on cooperative targets and prototyping
Thera Bytes CEO Thorsten Feldmann described the studio’s internal changes and the development approach behind EVAC:
- Structures were reorganized and the studio focus “clearly sharpened.”
- The plan targets cooperative multiplayer games for both Core and Casual audience segments.
- Ideas are translated into core mechanics and tested as prototypes before the studio invests in a full game.
- For EVAC specifically, gunplay and an advanced injury model are at the center of development.
Technology leadership and avoiding bottlenecks
Since mid-2025, the studio’s technical direction is handled by Chief Technology Officer and co-owner Kreshnik Halili.
- He is not aiming for a “typical tech guy” approach and says he relies on intuition.
- The team works iteratively.
- A key priority is preventing technical bottlenecks to keep development speed consistent across the full project timeline.
Shooter development in Germany, and where the genre clusters
Shooter development in Germany is described as relatively rare—particularly for studios based in Bavaria. The article points to Frankfurt am Main as a genre hub, citing long-running development activity and new projects, including Hunt: Showdown (Crytek) and Off the Grid (Gunzilla Games). It also notes that Ubisoft’s Berlin and Düsseldorf studios are involved in development of Rainbow Six: Siege.
