Bloober Team reportedly has two unannounced video games in the works, both horror titles set in pre-modern era Europe. Users found the unannounced titles, titled “Black” and “Dum Spiro”, on the EU’s Creative Europe program website. The website also lists the game “H2O”, which we know was the codename for Layers of Fear 2 released back in 2019.
The unannounced games were pointed out by Twitter user @bobvids, who revealed that the European Union was giving out grants to the studio in order to make a total of four games. Two of the games have already released, however: The Medium funded in 2013, and “H2O” AKA Layers of Fear 2 funded in 2018. Two other games, however, have descriptions that don’t quite ring a bell when it comes to the studio’s past releases.
One, codenamed “Black”, is “presented from a first-person perspective” and features a “mixture of exploration, survival”, and “visceral hand-to-hand, or melee, combat.” Stranger yet, the setting of the game will apparently be an “unconventional blend of the Middle Ages and alien species”, though not much is mentioned specifically after that. What we do know is that the game will have players “constantly outnumbered”, and seems to focus more on the more active, combative aspects of horror than the psychological aspects of their past titles.
Codename “Black”
- Began funding in 2019, still ongoing
- Mature story of the dark aspects of faith and humanity with the alien lifeform as catalyst for character development
- Ambiguous moral choices (should we punish those who have wronged us, or stand with them against a greater evil? Should we save a child at the cost of our own life?)
- Mix of stealth and intense, visceral combat (hand-to-hand/melee)
- Historical setting makes the story more realistic and relatable, allows for potential spin-offs set in other historical periods (a la Assassin’s Creed).
Second on the list is “Dum Spiro”, taken from the famous Latin phrase “Dum spiro, spero”, which translates to “While I breathe, I hope”. The game will take place during WWII between 1941 and 1944, and will follow the story of an imprisoned boy in a Polish ghetto. The game features three acts, and the decisions made in each will affect which “episode” the player experiences next a la the branching paths of Detroit Become Human.
Codename “Dum Spiro”
- Began funding in 2015, ended in 2018
- Divided into 3 acts with a branching plot
- The aim and main distinguishing feature of the game is the “destruction of the fifth wall” separating the player from the presented history.
- An extensive system of interpersonal relationships based on smaller and more frequent decisions that do not affect the main story
It’s worth noting that, while Bloober Team may have received funding from the EU to develop the above projects, this does not necessarily mean that these games will ever be released. There is also the possibility that the above titles may have turned into other projects that will differ wildly from their initial concept.
And most importantly, neither of these games will likely be connected to Bloober’s partnership with Konami or a potential future Silent Hill title, as if that was the case, Bloober Team would not need to apply for funding from the EU.
[Source: Reddit]
