Blumhouse is opening its doors to a new world in entertainment: video games. Not just any video games, either. Mirroring the early days of when the now-wildly popular horror company began making waves in movies, Blumhouse is shining a spotlight on smaller, scrappier independent creatives. “The indie horror space is a thriving and creative place,” says Louise Blain, Creative Lead at Blumhouse Games. “We want to explore exciting new ways to give you nightmares.”
Fully unveiled during Summer Game Fest earlier this year, Blumhouse Games is a brand new games publishing division within the production company, and its debut slate has quite the variety to offer horror fans. Each of the company's first six titles brings something new to the table. “Blumhouse as a studio really wants to expand the genre in innovative ways,” says Blain. “Games are a fresh and powerful way for us to tell more scary stories.”
That push for genre expansion means that Blumhouse Games' initial projects cover practically the entire gamut of interactive horror. Fear the Spotlight, the publisher's soon-to-release debut, captures the chilling unease of PlayStation-era survival horror. At the entire other end of the spectrum is spooky shooter Crisol: Theater of Idols, a comparatively more modern fright fest with shades of BioShock.
All these games are being developed by small indie studios, some as tiny as just two people. Given that Blumhouse's roots are in independent horror films, it makes sense to see them jumping into the indie horror games scene rather than fueling blockbuster AAA projects.
“It's no secret that some of the best horror comes from the limitations of budget that often breed terrifying innovation,” remarks Blain. “We really want to shine a spotlight on that wealth of creative talent.” She explains that one of the greatest challenges with such a goal is that there are “more incredible horror games than we can realistically sign.”
But why would a games studio want to work with a brand new publisher when they could sign up with someone more established? “Our aim as a publisher is to be the best possible partner for our developers, so that can include input from all of Blumhouse, not just the games side,” explains Blain. That means game creatives have access to some of horror storytelling's greatest modern minds, including a filmmaker fans know and love. Blain reveals that the game division collaborates “directly with James Wan, making sure he's always aware of what we're working on, and his feedback is invaluable. It's really important to us that we can provide support for our dev partners that make the most of our collective know-how as a horror studio.”
While Wan actively provides feedback to studios, Blumhouse Games has already set up a more significant pairing of game and film creatives. Sam Barlow, the experimental creative behind Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and the recent indie darling Immortality, has teamed up with none other than Brandon Cronenberg for Project C, arguably the most hotly anticipated of Blumhouse Games' current projects.
Blain says that “pairing Sam Barlow with Brandon Cronenberg for Project C was fully a team effort.” We know very little about it (although presumably, with Cronenberg onboard, it'll follow in the footsteps of Barlow's recent projects that blur the line between live-action cinema and video games). But while we patiently await more information, Blain teases, “If you're already a fan of both Sam and Brandon's work and know the kind of cinematic worlds they inhabit, you can't even imagine the twisted darkness that's coming from those minds meeting.”
Having collaborations like Barlow and Cronenberg on the horizon is a very exciting thing for Blumhouse Games and will likely be instrumental in making a strong impact on the horror scene. But while big names from the world of film are exciting, it's the small developers Blumhouse Games is working with that shine the brightest. With so many spooky projects to choose from, though, how does one stand out to Blumhouse? Blain says the thing that gets her attention is “that creative look at the genre. Turning horror on its decapitated head – approaching it from a different direction.”
“We're not against a good jump scare, but in a world of jump scares, how does yours feel different? Approaching scary games in a smart way will always appeal to me, and there's no shortage of that out there,” she adds.
It certainly looks like Blumhouse Games' debut release, Fear the Spotlight, is ready to take players on a spooky journey in a creative fashion. In the indie spirit, the project started with its developers taking big, personal risks. “Our first game, Fear the Spotlight, is made entirely by a husband and wife team who decided to quit their full-time jobs and follow their passion,” says Blain. “They wanted to make their own game to try and get their friends as excited about horror as they are.”
Described as a “Love letter to '90s teen horror” by Blain, Fear the Spotlight was initially launched on Steam last year to positive reviews. Now teamed up with Blumhouse, developer Cozy Game Pals is working on an upgraded version that will hopefully push its teenage terror ambitions even further.
The beauty of Blumhouse Games' upcoming slate is that it offers a wide range of styles. Blain describes it best as “a flavor of fear for everyone, just like our movies.”
“As horror fans, we're passionate about the many different sub-genres that exist under the grand umbrella term that is horror, and we want to reflect those in our games,” she says. “Not only that, but we want to explore different kinds of experiences, both visually and conceptually.”
Among the varied experiences Blumhouse Games wants to explore is horror for people who don't like horror. Blain explains, “I also love the idea that people who don't think they like horror games, maybe because they just think they're [all] survival horror like Resident Evil, might pick up one of our titles and be pleasantly/horrifically surprised.”
It's clear that Blumhouse Games is very passionate about sticking to its older sibling's origins in independent creativity. “We're keeping our experiences on the indie side so we can keep being creative on a smaller scale,” says Blain. “It means we can stay scrappy and keep taking risks.” That spirit makes Blumhouse Games an exciting new publisher in the gaming world. Indie horror games have long provided unique, thrilling experiences for players, and it sounds like Blumhouse Games wants to use the power of its name and overall horror knowledge to give these games a platform where they can shine.
“The future of horror games should be constantly evolving with experiences that push the medium forward in new and surprising ways,“ says Blain. “I think Blumhouse Games' role in that is continuing to support and work creatively alongside brilliant indie talent who aren't afraid of pushing boundaries.“ With so many interesting indie titles already lined up, players are certainly in for a frightfully good time, thanks to Blumhouse's support of these boundary-pushing devs.
