Ah, the difficult second indie game! Does one go with a safe sequel, try a new riff within the same genre, or strike out in a bold new direction? Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell is shooting for the latter with Volume, a top-down sneak 'em up which lets you create your own levels.

Today's announcement describes Volume as "a fast paced, smart action game" where you can't murder, so you need to sneaking around, watching enemies' routines carefully and distracting them so you can steal goodies and/or hack the planet. Check the official site for more.

Volume's coming to platforms yet-unknown in 2014.

As well as this here fancy announcement trailer, Bithell dropped a video showing the level editor.