Blumhouse had no intention of publishing a game in 2024. The studio, one of the biggest names in horror cinema, announced in February 2023 that it would launch a video game publisher, and executives were exploring projects from independent teams with budgets under $10 . million. . Blumhouse Games' goal was to support a few horror titles per year, with an initial plan to begin publishing in 2025.
But then, in September 2023, the Blumhouse team stumbled upon this. fear of lights. It was a moody horror game about two friends sneaking around their haunted high school and coming into contact with the ghosts of students who died in a fire in the 1990s. Spooky hijinks and mysterious puzzles ensue, all presented from a third-person perspective and with a raw PS One aesthetic. fear of lights It was a PC game created by Crista Castro and Bryan Singh of Cozy Game Pals, a husband and wife team with impressive professional credentials: Castro was an art director at Nickelodeon and an art lead at Exciting Reboot, Singh was a programmer who worked on The Last of Us and Uncharted series a trip. They left their corporate jobs and founded Cozy Game Pals during the pandemic, and fear of lights It was their first big project together.
fear of lights Its debut wasn't particularly loud, but a few weeks after it arrived on Steam, Blumhouse Games president Zack Wood and creative lead Louise Blain spotted it on Twitter. Castro told Engadget how it happened:
“Zach found it, and he and Louise Blain sat down and played together and said, 'Oh my God, this is exactly the kind of game we want to publish, it's really cool.' Let's reach out to them and see: do they need help? Is there anything here we can work on together?
“Meanwhile, yes, we needed help,” Singh added, laughing. “We posted it, but we had no idea how to let people know about it. The people who discovered it were saying very positive things, and we said, okay, that's great, but now what do we do? We know how to do things, but we don't know anything else about marketing.
Blumhouse checked in with Cozy Game Pals and asked them how they could help improve fear of lights. Initially, Castro and Singh suggested porting it to consoles and adding additional languages and core things to expose the existing game to more players.
“They were excited about the idea, but they also offered them more time,” Singh said. “They asked me, 'What would you do if you had one more year to work on it?'”
Opportunity to expand fear of lights Castro and Singh were stunned. At first it scared them too.
“We had never thought about adding a mission to the game before,” Singh said. “We also had what we thought was a complete game and we were very proud of it. So it was very difficult to figure out how to add something that we felt was finished; We didn't want to destroy it. Part of it is our taste and our job, but part of it also feels like black magic. For example, if we modify it, will it appear in a way we can be proud of?
Castro and Singh seized the opportunity. On October 26, 2023, about a month later. fear of lightsFor the first time, they removed it from Steam with the promise of adding new games, console versions, and localization features. They didn't mention Blumhouse at the time. Behind the scenes, Blumhouse Games gave Cozy Game Pals a year to create the final version of the game fear of lightswithout creative restrictions.
Renewed version of fear of lights It was released on Steam, PS4, PS5, Switch and Xbox Series. It is the first game on Blumhouse's publishing slate, which includes future titles from EYES OUT, Half Mermaid, Perfect Garbage, Playmestudio and Vermila Studios.
Cozy Game Pals took advantage of the year of extra development time. Instead of altering the dark magic of the original game, Castro and Singh added an entirely new trailer, doubling the game's runtime and expanding on their initial ideas in sophisticated and downright horrifying ways. fear of lightsBy the way, it is an excellent horror experience. It has loose environments, low-resolution textures, and grainy CRT effects, but its animation is fluid and the camera uses easy-to-use third-person controls, injecting nostalgia without compromising modern conveniences. The story revolves around two teenage friends, Vivian and Amy, and takes them on individual but connected journeys through twisted and moving versions of reality. Their dialogue and characters feel authentic, and their emotions are incredibly relatable, whether facing unspeakable horrors or talking to their crush. It also has some good scares.
The first half of fear of lights Full of satisfying puzzles, spooky ghosts, and tense hide-and-seek mechanics. The second half, created after Blumhouse's intervention, adds layers of emotional depth and introduces a truly terrifying enemy. Vivian is the main playable character in the original release and Amy's story takes center stage in the expanded content.
“Vivian's first story was figuring out how to make this game,” Castro said. “But when we were making Amy's movie, we had learned a lot of lessons. I feel like the monster is better, the puzzles are better, and the storytelling is simpler. “The second half ended very well.”
In addition to handling the art, Castro was the main writer. fear of lightsWhile Singh was in charge of programming. Castro was a big horror fan in the relationship: he was the Resident Evil guy, she was the Silent Hill girl (read about Avril Lavigne sk8er boy) – and together they wanted to capture the joy of fear in video game form. fear of lights Drawn from their personal lives and memories of high school, when all their feelings seemed new, extreme, and sometimes silly. From this lens fear of lights It also brilliantly tackles serious themes such as loss, death, prejudice and love.
“It's an emotional time in most people's lives,” Castro said. “I grew up playing these games in the 90s or early 2000s, like Silent Hill I, II and III. So when I think about high school and how I felt writing the story, I can only write from my personal experience. Being a fan and being embarrassed, and when you're attached to someone, how special that is.
Singh continued the theme and said, “I think in home life we bond over many of our shared experiences, which is also represented in the game. Families are complex family structures. Having a father who is not present in your life, or losing a close family member, everything changes and affects you. “They were just taken out of our lives.”
Castro and Singh affectionately described Blumhouse Games as a scrappy team of horror fans, with fewer than 10 people supporting a variety of projects at a time, and doing so while trying to establish themselves in a new market. In addition to driving trailers and pushing fear of lightsAfter the game's re-release, Blumhouse staff helped Cozy Game Pals find a contractor to do the logo and key art, a shipping company to help publish the game on consoles, and a translation team. But above all, Castro and Singh said the people at Blumhouse Games seem to really enjoy the projects they've committed to.
“They have been the perfect partner, incredibly supportive,” Castro said. “They really let us decide everything in our game, the game is completely our vision. We'd show them prototypes and level designs and of course they'd have feedback and ideas, but yeah…
“They know our game very well,” Singh said. “They are true fans of the original version. They know our game intimately and can talk to us about our ideas from a very informed perspective.
“They approach it from a supportive perspective,” Castro concluded. How can we help them be creative? for you Seeing that You You care about him and you are happy with him. “It was amazing.”
fear of lights Available now for $20 on Steam, PS4, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series
