The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, by developer The Astronauts, was the indie studio's debut title, originally released on September 25, 2014. At the time, it was seen as something of an outlier, as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter didn't quite seem to neatly fit into established genre conventions. Although the term has come to be seen as having a negative connotation, as a first-person exploration and puzzle solving experience, The Vanishing Ethan Carter can technically be classified as a "walking simulator." However, it is more than that reductive label usually implies, and over the last decade its vision has proven clairvoyant in a number of ways.