Immortality developer Sam Barlow is working on two new horror games with his studio, Half Mermaid, per mysterious new teasers first revealed on Steam. “Project C” and “Project D” were spotted on the platform on Wednesday, with intrigue fuelled by teaser information delivered in heavily redacted form.
Project C’s description is listed as “Gifted with the ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ████, █████ █████████ kaleidoscopic █████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███ ██ future.”
There is, however, a complete quote that kicks off its listing: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Further, the game’s Steam page hints that it’s cinematic in nature, and it features something “for the first time ever in a video game.”
An accompanying teaser video contains dark red clouds, an obscured woman’s face, an explosion, and what sounds like a distorted piano tune.
Speaking to Kinda Funny Games, Barlow has teased this is a sci-fi horror project partially inspired by Immortality. “One of [the games] is in the tradition of Immortality, building on some of that tech but going in a cool direction,” Barlow said. “It might be like the chunkiest mechanic we’ve come up with within this kind of non-linear space, it’s a cool little puzzle box.”
Project D’s description, meanwhile, is listed as “Something bad ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ██████ ████. Some doors ████ ████ ███ ██████████. Some doors ████ ████ ██████████. ███ ███ ███ home?”
It does not have a quote teaser like Project C, but the description indicates it’s a survival horror, likely set in 1983, that it relates to a nurse somehow, and that it will feature nightmares.
Read: Immortality’s Sam Barlow discusses his new game, and the modern creative machine
The video teaser for Project D is more surreal than the one for Project C, and contains voices chattering over a radio, a glowing door, a blinking eye, and what appears to be revolving skyscrapers.
Barlow has teased this project as being a lot like Silent Hill, based on Barlow’s experiences working on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Silent Hill Origins.
“Project D, that is for my old school fans that played Silent Hill: Shattered Memories back in the day,” Barlow said. “This is a third-person survival horror game, but like, take that and then imagine what happens if the Immortality team fuses with a third-person survival horror game.”
Both projects are certainly compelling, and there’s plenty of reasons to stay tuned to what Sam Barlow and Half Mermaid are cooking – particularly if you’ve played Immortality, but even more so if you’re looking for new, experimental horror games.
Barlow has become known, in recent years, for pushing narrative games forward in ambitious ways, and Project C and Project D are the intriguing next frontiers for his unique style of game creation. Stay tuned to learn more about both projects.
