Prague, sometime in the nineteenth century. The great flood has gone down, and the city of a hundred spires has to be rebuilt. But the builders are not who they seem. In Prague Unseen, the new worker-placement game from Petr Vojtěch, Michal Peichl and Jindřich Pavlásek, published by ALBI, steam engines share the streets with the creatures of old Czech legend: clay Golems who keep the ancient knowledge, Horned devils who run the city’s money, clockwork Robots of the industrial age and Vodníks, the eccentric water goblins of the Vltava. You don’t pick one of them. You send workers from all four peoples across the four quarters of the city, spread rumours, raise buildings and bridges and play each quarter’s own little mini-game, over three eras, to win the most say in what Prague becomes.
This soundtrack turns that hidden city into a pop-up book. On a candlelit desk an old leather-bound volume opens, its pages riffle to the next chapter, and an ink-and-watercolour Prague springs up from an antique map: the flooded Old Town, the Josefov market, the mill on Kampa, the astronomical clock, the roofs of Malá Strana, Vyšehrad above the river. Read it once by day and the creatures hide in plain sight. Read it again by night, and a lantern shows you who is really there. Seventy-nine minutes of Czech romantic orchestra for a Czech game about Prague.
🎶 The Soundtrack — Twelve Chapters, by Day and by Night
A Czech romantic orchestra with a modern cinematic sound, in the spirit of the Vltava and the old Prague legends: harp and strings, French horns, clarinet and bassoon, cimbalom and accordion, choir and church bells over big cinematic drums. A flowing river theme keeps returning, and each of the four peoples has its own voice. Every chapter has two different pieces, one for the day and one for the night, so nothing repeats in the whole 79 minutes.
- The Great Flood · Velká voda — Rain lashes the Old Town, lightning splits the storm cloud over the castle, rows of waves rise over the broken stone bridge, and a boatman rows the stranded townsfolk to safety. A flowing river theme on strings and harp swells into a storm of timpani, brass calls and rushing string runs, with a choir at the climax and a hopeful French horn as the rain eases. By night, four strange heads keep watch from the rooftops.
- The Golem of Josefov · Golem z Josefova — In the Jewish Town market a huge figure in a greatcoat stomps from stall to stall, a guild banner springing up at each one, until he walks home to the Old New Synagogue and lies down to rest. Low cellos and a slow, heavy march on frame drum and taiko carry a soulful clarinet melody, and by lantern light you see the clay golem himself.
- The Devil’s Cauldron · Čertův kotel — In a curiosity shop on Čertovka, the Devil’s Stream, a cauldron bubbles over a ring of fire, the flame wheel turns, and potions, purses and keys hop out onto the shelves of a glass cabinet. A sly minor-key waltz for bassoon, accordion and cimbalom over pizzicato strings boils up into a fiery devils’ dance, and at night the cloaked gentleman tips his hat and shows his horns.
- The Water Goblin’s Mill · Vodníkův mlýn — On Kampa the mill wheel turns, a fish leaps, and the vodník folds himself flat whenever someone walks by. A tipsy water-goblin polka on bassoon and tuba, with harp glissandi and rippling celesta, grows into a sweeping river theme, then a tender music-box interlude as the souls rise from his porcelain teacups.
- The Clockmaker’s Children · Děti hodináře — On the Old Town Square the astronomical clock strikes the hour and the apostles parade past while the old clockmaker bends over his bench. Ticking percussion, a harpsichord ostinato and bright brass fanfares over a modern synth pulse. At night the apostles turn out to be little robots, and a string of bulbs lights up one by one over the bench.
- Mending the Bridge · Oprava mostu — Two crews of masons carry stones from both ends of the broken bridge until the missing arches fold up and click into place. Steady strings like hammer blows, anvil and taiko, a rising French horn theme and the river theme on harp build to a triumphant tutti with choir, and by night the masons are golems.
- The Witch over the Rooftops · Čarodějnice nad střechami — Over the red roofs of Malá Strana the chimneys smoke, the washing flaps and two cats prowl a ridge, while a stone gargoyle turns its head when nobody is looking. A solo violin over a Czech bagpipe drone, flute and harp, a playful broom-flight scherzo, then a hushed rooftop nocturne as the witch swoops round the tower under the moon.
- Rumours at the Tavern · Klepy v hospodě — In a Prague beer hall the band plays, the glasses go up, and rumours flutter out of the crowd like paper ribbons, while four quiet guests on the back bench begin, little by little, to sway along. A cheerful beer-hall polka on tuba, clarinet and trumpets slips into a mysterious waltz of strings and celesta and back again. The lantern shows who the guests are: a golem, a devil, a robot and a vodník.
- Garnets and Gears · Granáty a ozubená kola — The Karlín works: chimneys smoke, a little train crosses the viaduct, a wall of cogwheels turns, and crates ride the belt and tumble onto the pile. Hammers and pistons, staccato strings and low brass under a proud horn melody, with harp and celesta glittering like the Bohemian garnets that blaze up from a crate at night, when clockwork robots run the whole works.
- The Prophecy of Vyšehrad · Vyšehradské proroctví — A calm afternoon on the rock above the Vltava: a picnic under the lindens, a rowing boat on the river, the broken Devil’s Column shivering for no reason. Harp, wordless choir and a noble oboe theme in ancient modal colours rise to a radiant climax with bells as, by night, Princess Libuše rises from the rock and foretells a city whose glory will touch the stars.
- The Four Quarters · Čtyři čtvrti — A fair on Střelecký ostrov with all four mini-games running at once: the cauldron, the mill wheel, the clock dial and the market stall, while the four quarters’ pennants race up and down the striped pole. A carnival where four themes trade places, a clay march, a devilish waltz, a water polka and a clockwork tick, building to a joyful tutti.
- Prague Restored · Praha obnovená — The whole city stands again. A paddle steamer glides under the mended bridge, the brass band plays, the townsfolk cheer and fireworks burst over the skyline. The river theme in full glory with choir, brass, church bells and big drums, every motif returning, and a warm, tender ending on harp and strings as all four peoples wave from the bridge in the lantern’s light.
🎨 The Art — A Pop-Up Book of Hidden Prague
The game’s own art mixes steam-age machinery with Czech myth: a clock tower rising from the waves, horned and masked figures, framed scenes of the flooded city. The video carries that world into an antique pop-up book, built and lit in Blender. Every house, bridge, wheel and creature is a die-cut card piece painted in ink and watercolour, standing on an old atlas map of Prague that fills each spread. Pieces fold up from the page on their paper hinges, wheels turn, boats rock on rows of paper waves, a storm cloud hangs on its thread, and the camera leans in over the pages like a curious reader.
Every chapter begins the same way: the book opens, the pages riffle, and a title page with the chapter’s name in English and Czech turns over before the city springs up. At the end it all folds flat and the book shuts again. Part I, Prague, is read by day, the sunlight moving from morning to sunset across the twelve chapters. Part II, Prague Unseen, is the same book at night: moonlight from the window, a candle burning lower with every chapter, and a lantern wandering over each spread. Wherever its light falls, the disguises fall away.
🎬 Watch & Listen
Light a candle and open the book. Let the soundtrack of Prague Unseen play from the first storm to the last firework while you send your golems, devils, robots and vodníks out into the four quarters, and keep an eye on the guests at the next table. In this Prague, you never quite know who is really there.