Since Blumhouse Games’ debut last year, the company has hit the ground running in their promise to deliver “different flavors of fear,” Blumhouse Games creative lead Louise Blain told Deadline. The company’s first title, announced at 2024’s Summer Game Fest, was Fear the Spotlight, a well-received ’90s-style mystery game that closely follows two teen girls who unravel a crime that happened at their high school years earlier. Made by Cozy Game Pals, Fear the Spotlight primarily served as a retro fun and creepy, lower-stakes entry into the horror video game genre for younger or novice players.
This time around, between the Summer Game Fest 2025 and the Tribeca Film Festival, Blumhouse Games announced three new diverse projects that aim to amp up the scares and gameplay complexities. Sleep Awake, developed by Eyes Out team Cory Davis and Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck, is a first-person horror tale that centers on the reliance on psychedelic medicines to combat the need for sleeping in order to prevent disappearing. Grave Seasons, developed by Perfect Garbage’s team Son M., Emmett Nahil and Nikky Armstrong, is a dark twist on 2D farming sims that nearly distracts you with its beauty as you’re solving a potential murder amongst your vegetable gardens. Then there’s Vermila Studios’ Crisol: Theater of Idols, developed by David Carrasco and David Tornero, a survival horror game inspired by Spanish folklore, religion and art that evokes gameplay elements of Resident Evil and BioShock.
Between the possibility of unknowingly romancing a killer roaming your farmlands or participating in a medically induced state of insomnia to stay alive to visiting a haunted Spanish island inhabited by ancient deities trying to kill you, the state of Blumhouse Games shows promise as they hold steadfast to creative inclusivity.
“I think the important thing for us, rather than looking for what people might think would be a typical Blumhouse Game, is that we’re looking for so many different types of horror out there. And I think when people go watch a horror movie, which obviously people go watch all types of Blumhouse horror movies, they expect found footage or psychological or comedy horror.” Blain said. “When people think of games, a lot of people who are maybe not in the horror game space might think, ‘Oh, horror is just a survival horror, like Silent Hill or Resident Evil.’ Those games are great, but we want to make people outside of the space think that they can play a horror game, too. One thing we want is for all those different sub-genres to be reflected in games. And we’re really proud of our slate having something for everyone to enjoy.”
“I think we’re uniquely positioned to put a spotlight on the various sub-genres of horror in games because we’ve got a brand that fans care about,” added Blumhouse Games president Zach Wood. “That’s very exciting to us.”
To learn more about the upcoming slate of Blumhouse Games, Deadline spoke with the development teams from Eyes Out, Perfect Garbage and Vermila Studios during Summer Games Fest 2025 to see what details they’d be willing to share ahead of their launch dates.
Sleep Awake (Eyes Out)
In the last known city on Earth, people are mysteriously disappearing when they sleep. Those brave enough to fight the urge are tasked to engage in reckless experiments to stay awake. A young woman named Katja must navigate depraved death cults, otherworldly forces and an entity known as The Hush to save herself, her loved ones and those around her. While there is no specific release date, the game is due to come out in 2026.
DEADLINE: What was the inspiration behind this game?
CORY DAVIS: First and foremost, I think about real-world experiences and have questions about reality. Every time Robin and I got together at the beginning stages, we were working on music together but started to question what was coming from the music and our own life experiences. This led us to have discussions about what is a dream. Why does there seem to be some sort of connection between sleep and death? Is there some sort of place or boundary between them? Why do we dream? Where do we go when we sleep? All these things started to become inspirations for the sounds we were creating.
ROBIN FINCK: We really liked exploring the idea that no matter what age, background, or circumstance that, everyone’s got to sleep at some point. And if we take that away, how will they all live under the shared threat of this mystery of those who are vanishing if they do sleep?
DEADLINE: There are so many sleep disorders out there. What did research look like?
DAVIS: We actually built a thick Bible for the pre-production of this world that we were building. At first, it was a world before it became a game. We were diving into sleep studies and hallucinogenic drug studies, and I’ve personally experienced lots of issues with sleep throughout my whole life and many experiences that I can’t explain. We have an open and collaborative environment on our team, so they had their own experiences and backgrounds to contribute. We had people on our team who created deck after deck of scientific information to keep in mind when dabbling in this space and then trying to find things that connected with us personally rather than just things we had heard about.
DEADLINE: There are so many sleep disorders out there. What did research look like?
FINCK: A lot of that real-world research and historical research was inspiring, and we let that guide us into coloring outside the lines within this world.
DEADLINE: When I was playing this game, I noticed Rorschach-esque patterns. It was also giving Mothman Prophecies. Talk about any real-world tangible things that inspired the look of this game.
DAVIS: We feel like we’re part of a wave of a redefinition of horror, and it’s not just our team. There’s a number of creators that have really pushed the boundaries of the genre. The work of several people inspired us. For example, Panos Cosmatos created the films Beyond the Black Rainbow and Mandy, and Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void was a keystone for us. We also can’t forget David Lynch. He was a huge inspiration for us from day one. I don’t think there’s anything that he’s created that didn’t make us scratch our heads and go like, we can be better; we can go further.
There’s also a ton of great games like Soma, Amnesia, Half-life 2, Outlast and Alien: Isolation. I really enjoy seeing all the new experiments that are happening right now in the industry.
DEADLINE: Can you talk about choosing first-person gameplay over third-person?
DAVIS: We wanted players to look through their own eyes in this place we’ve created and question their own reality once they step away from the game. Experiences like this that are very music-forward are meant to be contemplative in a certain respect as well. They do have an advantage in first-person in terms of immersion.
DEADLINE: When I was playing, a lot of those jump cuts were disorienting, so I could totally get that vibe. There’s also an element of photorealism. Why is that? It’s certainly genre-bending.
DAVIS: In this game, you walk around in a game engine, but we had the chance to work with a film company that worked alongside us to direct several films on location in Portugal. We then incorporated those elements into the game world, as well as into the loading sequences. But they’re meant to be somewhat like elements you find in a dream that you have to connect the dots yourself and make your own conclusions.
DEADLINE: What would you like players to get out of this game?
DAVIS: I would like players to be open to what I could call a full-spectrum horror experience.
One that turns the page for horror and pushes the boundaries of the psychedelic experience through not just terror and dread but also vibrancy, emotionality, narrative, and a feeling of true immersion that hopefully you take into your own dreams.
Grave Seasons (Perfect Garbage)
We’ve all heard about farm to table, but what happens in the event that you accidentally harvest a decrepit hand out of the soil next to your beloved heads of cabbage? Do you investigate? Or pretend it never happened? Grave Seasons is a colorful pixelated farming and town simulation game (reminiscent of Stardew Valley), where amidst all the relationship building and crop harvesting, players must figure out which of the townspeople is a supernatural serial killer. The game developers are aiming for a 2026 release.
DEADLINE: The blend of retro-style gaming and this murder mystery is fun. How did you get here?
EMMETT NAHIL: Within the studio, we’re all huge horror buffs. We’re also huge fans of management and farming sims. That management element, I think, played well with the idea of what survival horror is. We wanted to create a game that combined these two play styles in a way that was innovative and unique yet still entertaining and offered a variety of new experiences for players.
DEADLINE: What games inspired you in the creation of Grave Seasons?
SON M: Grave Seasons is particular because we’ve been inspired by a lot of older farming sims. Meaning games that basically have an ending. We’re big fans of Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, which was a huge inspiration point. But there’s also a mix of modern horror games and games that engage with a little bit of a scary atmosphere that contain loops like Dredge or Cult of the Lamb; those have been big inspirations for the studio.
DEADLINE: How long did this take to develop?
NIKKY ARMSTRONG: We’ve been working on it for about two years up until this point. It’s been a really fun time.
DEADLINE: When did Blumhouse Games come along? And what was that partnership like?
M: We were lucky. In 2023, we went full into working on Grave Seasons. That means we went through the whole indie dev pitch process of reaching out to publishers and trying to show off the game. And believe it or not, Blumhouse was incredibly receptive immediately. We had reached out to Zach Wood on social media at the time, and not only did he take the time to hear us out, but he gave us the opportunity to pitch it properly, and we did. They really saw the vision and understood the aspects of the game that we were really excited about. We really wanted to blend this cozy atmospheric setup with these horrifying moments. And they’ve been great.
NAHIL: I think people would expect Blumhouse to only be enjoyers of horror games, but they love such a diverse array of games in that studio. It’s genuinely been a fun experience putting forth our weirder ideas, as well as our ideas that lean heavily into horror. They get it.
DEADLINE: What was the most challenging aspect of creating the game?
ARMSTRONG: Our game has a lot of branching world saves. What that means is that the decisions you make during the game impact the world, and they impact the world in a way that affects all of our disciplines. The branching narrative extends to elements you encounter in the world as you progress, and it is based on how you interact with the game or choose not to interact with it. The challenging aspect is ensuring that we account for the various actions players may take or choose not to take as they play.
DEADLINE: That sounds so stressful.
M: You should see our spreadsheets. [laugh]
DEADLINE: Talk more about the design. It’s cutesy but lowkey evil. All the characters are attractive as well.
ARMSTRONG: It’s true, all the characters are hot
M: Regarding some of the aesthetic decisions and why Grave Seasons looks the way it does and sounds the way it does, is that I think that the game reflects a lot of the studio internally. We really aimed to have a farming sim that maybe wasn’t a location you could immediately place. So, we dived into many different cultural dynamics. And you could see this actually in our serial killers later and all the cool, weird occult stuff that comes up. We tried to branch out as much as possible. Even the music has multiple influences. We also have a wide array of recipes that you can make in the game, ranging from kimchi to maqluba. Again, for us, we wanted to create something visually engaging, inspired by a range of horror films as well as Studio Ghibli. So, we’ve tried to bring all of that into one space.
Crisol: Theater of Idols (Vermila Studios)
Of the hands-on demos from Blumhouse Games, this one offered some serious spooks. In Crisol: Theater of Idols players embody the character of Gabriel, who is tasked to visit a Spanish island marred by sacred rituals and haunted by terrifying statues of deities that come to life. As you try to survive the circumstances, the player has to sacrifice their own blood to use as ammunition or hide from the horrors that threaten your existence in every corner.
DEADLINE: What was the jumping-off point that led you all to creating Crisol?
CARRASCO: Everyone in the company, but especially my business partner David Tornero, who is also the creative director with the big mind and ideas, we all love survival horror. We always think that there’s not too many action-survival horrors in the scene. We also felt that there was an underrepresentation of Spanish culture—meaning Hispanic and Latin culture, which is very underrepresented in gaming. We wanted to create something that people would enjoy. Our game showcases a twist on the culture and folklore that we hope will spark a thirst for knowledge, leading players to learn more about its origins, inspirations, art style, and the cathedrals that inspired the game.
DEADLINE: This game has some impressive design. How long was it in development?
DAVID CARRASCO: About five years.
DEADLINE: The creatures in this game look like stone-based marionettes. Is this something from Spain’s cultural history?
CARRASCO: In ancient times, the people wanted to make statues beautiful, but it’s not easy to paint on stone. They started creating what was called polychromatic statues. In doing this, they had to paint over the existing paint to add texture and a layer of detail. Then, they did this on wooden statues for a lot of religions. In Spain, it’s very prominent in the Catholic religion. And you learn from what you live, so we got inspired by the prominent religion. There’s Gothic and Romantic, which is darker and narrower in design. In the game, we’ve tried to combine many different art and architectural styles from Spain to create our own.
DEADLINE: A stressful addition to the game is that the character’s blood is their ammo. So, it forces the player to use strategy and stealth because you can’t just go firing at an enemy unless you want to run out of blood and die. Please explain.
CARRASCO: We’ve been playing survival horror for a long time. We love it. But in some cases, we noticed that the survival aspect of it had been disappearing slowly. There has been a shift towards action and away from survival. For example, you still need to find an herb or material to recover, or you don’t have so many clips of ammo. But these things don’t feel as survival-y. We wanted to introduce an aspect that had a religious undertone related to the holy blood. However, at the same time, this mechanic is tricky because the ammo is something that you want to defeat enemies, but in using it, you are also reducing your chances for survival. This increases the survival element of the survival horror and gives the gameplay a distinct edge.
DEADLINE: And back to the statues trying to kill you, it’s also scary that you can’t kill them with a single headshot. They just keep coming after you regardless of if they have a head or not. There is no safety. Why would you do such a thing?
CARRASCO: Our team loves horror movies and games. So, we tried to remember what made us cringe or scared in certain moments of a movie. One thing we thought of was to twist the unexpected. Generally speaking, blowing the head off a monster usually gives you a safe moment. So, we thought if we take that way and make it not safe, it will be unexpected, and it will give you some anxiety. We always try to keep things in the game “realistic” because if it’s a wooden statue, it doesn’t have a brain. It doesn’t have any real moving parts, so it doesn’t matter if you destroy the head. It’s just another part of the statue.
Then, we are using horror as a connective tissue for the game. We are not using jump scares constantly. It’s more like tension and stress. So, we asked ourselves, what gives you stress? What gives you tension? That would be certain cases where you try to reach something and not being able to do so. Or, seeing that you need to reload, but you don’t have any health left because the ammo is your blood. Or seeing that the monsters are coming at you, and you don’t have the ability to defeat them. Those are things that, for us, were musts for keeping that stress level as high as possible. And then, of course, discovering new creatures as you move on. But also, as you progress through the game, there’s always that ramp up and down where narrative plays a big part of it.
DEADLINE: I know the game doesn’t have a specific release date other than some time at the end of 2025, but what can you tell us about the plot?
CARRASCO: I would say a very brief introduction of the game is you are Gabriel, a captain of the Tercios Del Sol, which is a religious army force that takes on divine missions. You were asked by God’s son himself to take on a very specific mission to go to Tormentosa, an unholy island that split up from Hispania many years ago and created their own religion, to investigate it because very strange things were going on there. If you’re a fan of mystery, action, or survival horror and you want an extra twist on the genre, and first-person is your thing, I think you’ll like Crisol.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
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