Despite the development team clearly being ambitious with its story, gameplay, and visuals, Industria 2 is held back by uneven technical performance, some awkward level design, and inconsistent polish. That said, our experience across two different PC setups also showed that some of its worst issues may be hardware or configuration-specific, because underneath those problems is a solid, atmospheric, slow-paced shooter that often works better than its roughest moments suggest.

It is worth noting that our technical experience with Industria 2 varied quite a bit between two different PC setups. On one AMD-based setup, which included Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, and a Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU, the experience of playing Industria 2 started on a frustrating note. After some time spent on shader compilation, the DirectX 12 version of Industria 2 seems to have trouble understanding some of the graphics settings I chose.

Among other things, despite the fact that I manually set the in-game resolution to be my monitor’s native one—2560×1440—the game itself refuses to go beyond 1920×1080. Stranger still, there doesn’t seem to be any way for players with AMD graphics cards to disable frame generation. While the feature seems to be baked into the toggles for FSR, Nvidia users, on the other hand, can find a separate setting to enable or disable frame generation.

This has also meant that, when playing the DirectX 12 version of Industria 2 which supports full ray tracing, I also have to deal with input lag thanks to the frame generation, making the gameplay experience as a whole feel a lot more sluggish than it should. With Steam’s overlay helpfully telling me that I was maintaining around 150 FPS with frame generation, an option to disable it while still getting over 60 FPS would have been my preferred way of experiencing the first-person horror adventure game. This ultimately led me to play the DirectX 11 version of Industria 2, which is referred to by the studio as its “Performance Mode”.

Speaking of performance, I was able to maintain stable frame rates regardless of whether I was playing the DirectX 12 “Ray Tracing” version or the DirectX 11 “Performance Mode” version. The former, as I mentioned, was running at around 150 FPS with frame generation, which would put its true frame rate at around 70, while the latter basically ran at between 80 and 100 FPS throughout.

"Interact with a wooden plank, for example, at a slightly off angle, and you’re likely to see it fly away into space."

When it comes to the game itself, I would be remiss to not mention the sheer number of bugs related to physics, movement, and even NPC chatter triggers that I experienced throughout my time with the game on my AMD set up. Interact with a wooden plank, for example, at a slightly off angle, and you’re likely to see it fly away into space. Movement also feels strange; aside from the general sluggishness brought on by frame generation, there are also quite a few invisible walls that tend to completely halt your momentum.

One memorable (and downright hilarious) bug I experienced in the earlier parts of Industria 2 was the fact that crafting bullets kept prompting the nearby NPC to give me the entire bullet crafting tutorial again. While this last one didn’t really impede my progress throughout the game or make things less fun on a second-to-second basis, it still acted as a major indicator that Bleakmill needed to spend a lot more time on polishing Industria 2 before releasing it.

However, on our Nvidia-based setup, the experience was noticeably smoother. Running the game on an RTX 3080 Ti, a Ryzen 9 5950X, without DLSS, Industria 2 delivered decent overall performance. There were noticeable drops in some outdoor areas, but the game was generally stable and playable. I did not encounter the same crash-heavy experience, though I did run into one serious progression-blocking bug that forced me to reload the entire chapter. That was messy and frustrating, but it was not enough to completely derail the overall experience. Updates have already addressed some issues, but Industria 2 still feels like a game that would benefit from more polish.

As for the game itself, Industria 2 is a first-person action horror game in the vein of something like Resident Evil Village, where your time will often be split between slow, methodical exploration and intense combat against horrifying monstrosities. The twist here is that, rather than simply pressing a button to open a door, you have to hold down the interact key, the left click in my case, and drag the door open.

This has the side effect of making the game’s world feel like a more real place where physics seem to apply, and even makes encounters with enemies a scarier prospect, since you can’t simply open a door to quickly run past them.

"Once you get past its rough edges, Industria 2 can often be quite fun."

The Resident Evil influences in Industria 2 go deeper than just genre conventions as well. Aside from concepts like scarcity of ammo and limited inventory space, there is also a crafting system that encourages you to take your time in exploring the world behind you. Interestingly, the crafting system also led to me never having to worry about my ammo counts, since I always had enough to simply craft more bullets. Speaking of which, the arsenal in Industria 2 isn’t particularly interesting, but it does offer the kind of power curve you would expect, starting you off with an axe before giving you a pistol, a shotgun, and more.

Once you get past its rough edges, Industria 2 can often be quite fun. The title does a great job of setting up tense moments where you often have to make split-second decisions about whether you should sneak past the hostile robots or simply take them out, and you’ll often have to juggle this with solving some nearby puzzles. Even the pacing is quite well done, and while it starts slow, things quickly escalate once you’ve wrapped up the opening, gotten your hands on a gun, and have to travel to a new area.

The crafting system is also decent. It is not especially deep, but it gives exploration more purpose and makes resource management feel meaningful without becoming annoying. Weapon progression follows a similarly simple but effective structure. You can upgrade your weapons and feel a gradual sense of growth without the system getting in the way of the game’s pacing.

Enemy variety is decent as well, with enough different threats to keep encounters from becoming completely repetitive. The AI could definitely be sharper, and enemies do not always react as intelligently as they should, but the it works within the game’s slower and more deliberate structure.

"The art style gives the game a strong identity, and its industrial environments, strange machinery, and unsettling atmosphere do a lot of heavy lifting."

The visuals are one of the stronger areas of Industria 2. The art style gives the game a strong identity, and its industrial environments, strange machinery, and unsettling atmosphere do a lot of heavy lifting. The sound department is less impressive. It gets the job done, but for a game so dependent on atmosphere, it could have done more to heighten tension, sell environmental details, and make combat feel more impactful.

Level design is also uneven. Industria 2 often presents spaces that look more open or explorable than they actually are, with plenty of closed doors and blocked routes that can make areas feel more restrictive than expected. It is not a deal-breaker, because the overall structure still works, but it does occasionally make exploration feel less natural than it should.

The story of Industria 2 picks up some time after the events of its 2023 predecessor. The game puts you in the shoes of Nora, trapped in an alternate version of Germany where an AI named ATLAS is running things and creating horrific creatures. Despite your best efforts in the previous game, you find yourself still stuck in this alternate world, looking for a way to get back to your own dimension while also dodging the strange things ATLAS has created. The premise and story are quite interesting, and do a lot to offset some of the more annoying aspects of the game.

Industria 2 is a rough but worthwhile sequel. Its technical state is uneven, and our experience varied significantly between two PC setups, with one AMD-based configuration facing far more serious issues than an Nvidia-based one. It also has some awkward level design, AI that could be better, and at least one serious progression-blocking bug that forced a chapter reload.

Even so, its slow and methodical gameplay, decent crafting, simple but effective weapon progression, solid enemy variety, strong visual identity, and compelling atmosphere make it easier to appreciate than its roughest moments suggest. It needed more polish, and players should be aware that the technical experience may vary, but there is enough here to recommend it to fans of atmospheric first-person horror adventures.

This game was reviewed on PC.

If you’ve been ignoring this one, the game’s launch trailer (showcased below) might change your mind. If you liked its predecessor, this one is shaping up to be a very potent follow-up to everything that made your time with Nora in her first outing so hauntingly memorable. The story follows her efforts to return to her world after being trapped in a parallel dimension following the first game’s events. She’s essentially alone, although she does make a few friends along the way, and will have to be quite judicious in her use of some cool weapons if she wants to survive a bunch of threats that are looking quite formidable.

Expect to be on the edge of your seats if you decide to dive into this one, and be ready to bring some tactical thinking to the table as you manage your arsenal and inventory in your effort to see Nora through to the end of her adventure. Of course, there’s always the scope for this one to set up another outing for her. We’re quite eager to find out if that’s the case, if we’re being honest.

Irrespective of whether or not that turns out to be true, Industria 2 is shaping up to be a thrilling time on PC. Check out our feature for everything you should know.

With a strong survival horror influence underpinning its immersion, here are fifteen things to know about INDUSTRIA 2.

Game Overview

INDUSTRIA 2 is shaping up to be a tightly focused, narrative-driven first-person shooter that places its bleak, monochromatic atmosphere squarely in the crosshairs. You’ll once again step into the shoes of Nora, a scientist trapped in a surreal parallel dimension. Picking things up after she’s sought refuge in an abandoned location, she ventures out into the post-industrial world for a sequel which appears committed to delivering an introspective, story-led experience. This time around, exploration is poised to carry as much weight as the gunplay itself.

Slow and Methodical

INDUSTRIA 2 is the polar opposite to a run-and-gun shooter. It follows a deliberate, survival horror-like pace, where otherworldly forests, ghost towns, and mechanical factories alike demand patience and solemn observation. Enemies appear entirely robotic, and they’re not always thrown at you in waves. Instead, they’re placed with care, turning every confrontation into a tense exchange. In INDUSTRIA 2, a chaotic approach rarely prevails.

An Unsettlingly Personal Story

INDUSTRIA established the parallel world overruled by rogue AI ATLAS, but common complaints centred on the low emotional stakes in what was a promising premise. As a course correction, this sequel appears to dig deeper into Nora’s past, as it has been revealed that she may have played a significant role in the creation of the very machines that haunt the world she’s stranded in. This revelation should add an air of unsettling accountability to her journey, reframing each encounter as something more personal.

Diegetic Systems Ground Immersion

Immersion is clearly a priority for this sequel – frankly, it is in any game – but in adopting diegetic inventory and crafting systems INDUSTRIA 2 hopes to ground immersion with tangible mechanics. See, rather than pulling you out of the world into abstract menus, these systems – like the inventory scroll she whips out of her backpack – are integrated directly into Nora’s reality. There’s the sense that everything from managing resources to building tools is designed to enforce believability against the preternatural backdrop.

The World is a Post-Industrial Nightmare

Parts of INDUSTRIA 2’s setting lean heavily into post-industrial decay, where sprawling, impossible architecture appears constructed from organic machinery. These locations bring to mind Armored Core’s colossal factories, and perhaps even the biomechanical nightmare of Scorn. It’s a world where towering structures and labyrinthine spaces create unease through their defiance of logic, and we’ve more to say on the bio-horror angle later.

Five Distinct Weapon Types and Craftable Explosives

Combat will revolve around five distinct weapon types, however these don’t appear to be high-end, complex military-grade firearms but the more ramshackle pistols, shotguns, rifles and the like you find in Stalker. Further, each weapon can be upgraded with various attachments – silencers, extended magazines, special firing mods – suggesting a progression system which honours investment and experimentation with numerous possible loadouts. Elsewhere, explosives in the shape of small firebombs are craftable, adding another tactical option when overwhelmed with enemies.

Enhanced Melee

Compared to its predecessor, where clunky pickaxe melee was a common painpoint, INDUSTRIA 2 appears to place greater emphasis on close-quarters combat. That said, melee-only runs don’t seem possible, more that scattered detritus can be grabbed and used in situ – metal pipes, and so on. In the sequel’s Steam demo, melee weapons will break after a few swings. In terms of game design, this ensures found items can be used spontaneously, but not wholly relied upon. Yet, it can erode immersion when something metallic only lasts a few hits before snapping. It’ll be interesting to see how the devs balance this in the finished game.

Bio-Mechanical Horror

The developers have been upfront about the body horror, specifically mentioning robotic and bio-mechanical viscera. While the original INDUSTRIA included unsettling visuals, this sequel sounds like it’s pushing the techno-gore much further, potentially into disturbing territory. Whether it reaches this intensity remains to be seen, but with the sequel exploring numerous decrepit, claustrophobic environments, amplified body horror would certainly mirror the tone.

Powered by Unreal Engine 5

Built in Unreal Engine 5, INDUSTRIA 2 brings a noticeable leap in visual fidelity. Immediately present is the wholesale use of Lumen’s dynamic lighting potential, punctuating the oppressive darkness of industrial interiors with sparse illumination that bounces and reflects believably. Environments are more detailed, textures are rich with weather and decay, and physics-based interactions impart a tactile feel to moving objects, plugging cables, and crafting ammo. Let’s hope INDUSTRIA 2 isn’t plagued by the same performance issues affecting other titles made in UE5, as the shift in visual immersiveness the engine brings is proving dramatic.

A Short, Focused Experience

The first INDUSTRIA had a runtime of four hours, which many, as already alluded to, feel didn’t provide ample-enough time for the narrative to bloom. Well, INDUSTRIA 2 isn’t set to break the mould already set out by its predecessor in campaign length. This one’s slated to run for approximately four-to-six hours. However, the devs have been vocal about acting on feedback, and while the sequel is indeed another short experience, they’re assuring us that it will be a tightly focused, highly curated experience, where brevity works in the narrative’s favour.

Sound Design Is a Core Pillar

Interestingly, the game’s Steam page highlights sound design as a key pillar to the overall experience. We say interesting, as this isn’t something every shooter calls attention too, suggesting INDUSTRIA 2’s immersive-sim elements will dominate over gunplay. Audio, then, will build tension, whether through environmental ambience, mechanical echoes, or ghostlike murmurs hanging in stale air. That said, footsteps, weapon reloading, the sound of Nora’s opening backpack, each of these sounds is sharply polished too, supporting the Steam description’s audio-centric pledge.

Influence Shifts Toward Survival Horror

While the original INDUSTRIA wore it’s Half-Life inspirations openly, all this emphasis on detailed lighting, tactile sound design, and shuffling investigation points to the sequel taking a different route. Evidently, the developers are looking toward modern survival horror to establish the sequel’s aesthetic, explaining its careful mix of exploration and combat to heighten tension, alongside an increased emphasis on scarce ammunition and resource management.

Overhauled Enemy AI

Enemy behaviour has been upgraded for this sequel. Rather than simply reacting to your actions, enemies now inhabit environments befitting of their design – humanoid robots follow patrol routes, mechanical arachnids scurry through dusty burrows, and humans tiptoe with the same trepidation you likely will. However, during a gameplay trailer, whereby the player shoots a room-scanning tripod in earshot of three human explorers, the AI doesn’t showcase behaviour exactly how you’d expect enemies in the vicinity of gunfire to react. However, that footage was taken from gameplay earlier in development. Hopefully, the same situation in the finished game will yield enemies who startle at the pop of gunfire, as less predictable enemies leads to more threatening encounters.

Release Date and Platforms

INDUSTRIA 2 launches on April 15th. On release, it’ll be a PC-exclusive, with Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store currently listing the game for pre-order. Currently, consoles haven’t been officially announced. The first INDUSTRIA saw its console version arrive nine-months after the original launch, so something similar can’t be ruled out here.

PC Requirements

To adequately run INDUSTRIA 2, you’ll need at minimum an Intel i5-8600, AMD Ryzen 5 3600, or equivalent CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or similar GPU, and 8GB RAM. Recommended hardware, as per the game’s Steam page, includes an Intel i7-8700K CPU, GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, and 16GB RAM. The game also requires 20GB storage.

Discussing how disappointed the team is to be announcing the delay, it noted that the team’s journey had begun ten years ago, with many of the developers only working on the project in their free time. The studio has thanked fans for caring so much about the “crazy project we have been working on for years now.”

“Turns out finishing a high fidelity single-player FPS campaign with a team of 8 is hard,” wrote the studio. “We are punching above our weight with this one once again. On one hand, this is exactly why it’s exciting for us and apparently for a lot of people out there. Hearing from players and testers that this game sometimes can feel close to the games that inspired us growing up, like Half-Life, Bioshock, and Resident Evil, is unbelievably beautiful and motivating.”

“On the other hand, it’s sometimes overwhelmingly difficult for our tiny team scattered around the globe to make it fully click without burning out and being able to pay everyone fairly every month. A hard balance between passion and the reality of paying bills that most creatives out there face.”

In the meantime, the studio has decided to placate those looking forward to playing Industria 2 by releasing one of the songs from its soundtrack – Hint of Light – which has been composed by No Bloom Now and could be heard in the game’s teaser trailer.

“We totally get all the potential frustration from the delay. It just needs a little bit more time in the oven. For a small and agile team like ours, these two weeks go a long way,” wrote Bleakmill.

Industria 2 is going to be set two years after the events of the first game, with players taking on the role of returning protagonist Nora, who happens to be trapped in a parallel dimension between machine-built walls. Nora’s journey of trying to get back to her home in 1989 East-Berlin continues, while she makes use of an abandoned chapel near the coast as her base of operations, while exploring the parallel dimension, where she will also have to deal with sinister AI ATLAS.

The title got a trailer focusing on its story back in March 2025, which gave us a look at how it will double down on its predecessor’s horror shooter vibes. We got to see how players will have to sneak around strange monstrosities in a dilapidated building, while also being armed with a shotgun. Resource management seems to be a key aspect of gameplay, since the trailer’s player was hesitant in taking on the enemies.

Bleakmill has said that Industria 2 will focus on immersive gameplay through physics-based interactions with the world around the player. Along with this, there will also be a crafting system, as well as an inventory system that has been described as diegetic. Over the course of the game, players will be able to get their hands on five weapons, each of which can be upgraded with various attachments.

Industria 2 is being developed for PC. For more, check out our review of the original Industria.

Developed by Bleakmill and published by Headup, this one’s an interesting survival horror shooter that puts you in the shoes of Nora, the returning protagonist from the first title, who is grappling with its events while trying to make her way back home to 1989 Berlin. Her efforts are thwarted by ATLAS, a rogue AI that is seemingly connected to the sinister machines and automatons standing between Nora and her goals.

We were quite impressed by the first title’s storytelling and world-building, although we did lament its clunky controls and technical issues in our review. However, the sequel could finally perfect the formula and deliver a better experience as a result. The gameplay loop looks quite ambitious this time around, and it’s a thankfully short while before we can dive in and find out. Although the new trailer doesn’t reveal too much about the game, it’s still worth watching for you to get some context about what’s going on before you dive in.

The trailer indicates that Industria 2 will be doubling down on its predecessor’s horror shooter vibes. A brief look at the gameplay from the start of the trailer shows us the protagonist loading up their shotgun with some shells as they explore a dilapidated building.

In this building, the player has to sneak around some sort of monstrosities. When there are too many of them, the player has to resort to shooting some of them while also trying to escape.

On escaping, the trailer switches to showcase more of the story in Industria 2. The shooter will revolve around protagonist Nora having to figure out a way to get home alongside Marlene. The central question driving the story of Industria 2 will be about the sinister AI ATLAS.

Industria 2 is set two years after the events of the first game. Players take on the role of Nora, who is trapped in a parallel dimension between machine-built walls. While Nora has an abandoned chapel near the coast as her main base of operations, she is trying to figure out a way to get back to her home in 1989 East-Berlin.

Along the way, Nora will have to deal with several obstacles, the least of which will be ATLAS. The game will revolve around Nora coming to terms with her past and having to face the consequences of her previous actions, which are seemingly linked to the creation of ATLAS in some way.

The gameplay in Industria 2 will focus on presenting players with immersive gameplay through the use of physics-based interactions. There will also be a crafting system, as well as an inventory system described by the developers as diegetic. Paired with this will be a unique setting that features industrial decay and a boreal landscape, complete with otherworldly structures and creatures.

As part of the game’s crafting system, players will also be able to upgrade their arsenal of five weapons. These upgrades come in the form of various attachments, like extended magazines, silencers, or even more unique attachments that provide special attacks.

The studio has noted that, while Industria 2 will feature a core narrative that players can follow, it will be light on cutscenes. The title, inspired by the storytelling techniques of seminal shooter Half-Life 2, will feature in-game cutscenes that present the story will still giving players plenty of freedom.

Industria 2 is being developed for PC and is slated for release in 2025. As its name might imply, the title is a follow-up to 2022’s Industria.

We reviewed the original Industria on the Xbox Series X/S, giving it a score of 6 out of 10. While we praised the title’s storytelling and world building, as well as its visuals and atmosphere, the cumbersome movement, dull combat, as well as an array of technical issues were problems.

The Xbox Series X and PS5 are pretty evenly matched when you look at their net hardware, but both of them have advantages over each other in specific areas. Microsoft’s console, for instance, comes out on top in terms of pure, raw power, with a GPU of 12 teraflops, as compared to the PS5’s 10.28 teraflops GPU.

How will that, however, affect games in the coming years, especially those that release across both consoles? Can we expect multiplatform titles to look noticeably better on the Xbox Series X than they do on the PS5? According to Mark Aldrup, chief technology officer at Headup Games – who recently published the ClockStone-developed Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead – that won’t be the case.

Speaking to GamingBolt in a recent interview about the same, Aldrup said that the gap in the two consoles will only make a difference to the AAA development studios- and even in that case, players shouldn’t expect games to look significantly better on Xbox than on PlayStation.

“For us and most other indie developers this is not going to make any big difference,” Aldrup said. “For AAA development studios this might result in a slightly higher performance, but this is also very dependent on other factors than only the theoretical TFLOPS. I don’t think that we’re going to see games on Xbox Series X that look significantly better than their PS5 counterparts.”

Our full interview with the people behind Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead will be going live soon, so stay tuned for that. The game is available now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android.

"White Shadows shows a world based on contrast. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, light and darkness, despair and hope."

White Shadows has a striking visual aesthetic that immediately leaps out of the screen. How did you land on this look for the game?

It’s all based on a pretty simple concept. White Shadows shows a world based on contrast. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, light and darkness, despair and hope… And it deals with some pretty serious topics – systemic racism, propaganda, a world that uses its citizens as resources instead of giving them civil liberties, a world that is kind of entertaining itself to death. It’s pretty heavy stuff at times, and you know, showing these things can be amazing, but it can also be horribly boring and preachy.

We felt the best way to show all that was by having a stylized way that would allow us to show everything we needed for the story, but never completely fantasy, so there’s still a connection to the real world. And we also wanted to make fun of things. It’s a world where the powerful control the powerless. The world is huge, and you play someone who is really small. So we have these monumental settings, but as we all know, the powerful can be really stupid. So everything is in disrepair, bent and broken and held together in strange ways. We wanted both the horror and the absurd fun of what people do in our world to pop out as much as possible. The game world is off and it’s weird, but also strangely familiar. And the game looks like that, too.

White Shadows’ setting and narrative premise seem rife for some very relevant commentary- is that much of a focus in the game?

Yes, it is. We want to speak about what’s going on in the world around us today. We feel like we’re part of this world and, like most people, we want to help make the world around us a little better, not worse. What you see in the game is our reflection of what we see in the real world we all share. The racism, the propaganda, a world that is growing apart and where people don’t really speak with each other anymore. It’s our little contribution to keep some important conversations going. And it’s also our effort to give you some awesome entertainment at the same time.

Is the light and shadows visual style equally important to the way the game tells its story and the way players interact with it through gameplay mechanics?

Yeah, absolutely. For us, the visuals and the mechanics are not separate parts. They are part of the same thing. Black & white graphics are a visual choice, but they also speak to a world that is divided into parts by powerful people. And power – or powerlessness – is very much part of the gameplay experience. Having strong contrasts of light and shadows is a visual style, but it’s also a mechanic – light can be your enemy in this world, with people looking for you, but it’s also necessary to see things, obviously. It helps create a tension where you’re never quite sure what to expect.

"For us, the visuals and the mechanics are not separate parts. They are part of the same thing. Black & white graphics are a visual choice, but they also speak to a world that is divided into parts by powerful people."

What was behind the idea of occupying the game’s dystopian world with animals and anthropomorphic denizens?

Well, we’re all animals in some way, aren’t we? In its essence, White Shadows is a modern fable. We aim to tell a universal story through the things we all understand intuitively. Wolves are bad, rats are mean, pigs are dirty, sheep just bleat along and repeat what the other sheep are saying. But then, is that really true? Are things really that simple? We want to show a world of stereotypes – and then let the player decide if this allocation are true or not.

White Shadows promises a story that is dark yet funny- which is an exciting prospect, but a hard balance to strike. Can you talk to us about that, and how White Shadows goes about achieving that?

It’s always a question of how the game flows. In the end, our players will hopefully laugh and cry and cringe at what they see on the screen and what they feel playing the game. It always goes back to the world of our game – it’s a pretty dark setting which is loaded with connections to the real world we have around us. But it can also be really boring and depressing when dark stories are just dark and nothing else. For darkness to be truly dark, you need light as a contrast. For something to be funny, you need something serious next to it. It’s those contrasts that give ideas their full expression. When I play a game, I don’t want to just feel one thing – I want to feel everything. And so “dark yet funny” is not actually a paradox for us. It’s necessary to tell the story in the way it should be told.

Can players expect to learn much about the history and backstory of the game’s world through the course of its story?

Yes, they can. There are scenes specifically built around understanding the backstory of the game world and the origin story of our little heroine. The main thing is for us is to tell our story through gameplay – so when there’s something to understand in the world, we make sure that we give it to you in a playable way and not in a cutscene. We want to keep up the flow of the game at all time and tell you a great story – but in a way that enables you to decide for yourself what that story means.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of White Shadows be?

I’d say 3 to 4 hours, more or less the same length as games like Little Nightmares or Inside. But of course, play time is always hard to estimate. We are doing our best to make the game accessible to people who don’t usually play a lot of games – while keeping it challenging for everybody else.

Do you have any plans to launch on the Switch?

Yes, we have plans for that, but not right away. For the launch, we will focus on PC and next-gen consoles and then we’ll see if you guys like it.

"When I play a game, I don’t want to just feel one thing – I want to feel everything. And so “dark yet funny” is not actually a paradox for us. It’s necessary to tell the story in the way it should be told."

While most multiplatform games are choosing to launch as cross-gen titles in the early stages of the coming generation, White Shadows is exclusively on PC and next-gen consoles. Can you talk to us about how you arrived at that decision?

Well, you can’t always get what you want. Part of the reality of being a small team is that you must focus your efforts. Of course, we would like to make our games available for all players on all platforms at the same time. Every creator wants to get their stuff out there and we’re no different. We want to make it possible for everybody to enjoy our games on their preferred system. But we are a small team trying to build something extraordinary, and for that to have a chance, we must focus.

White Shadows depends to a large extent on big, detailed scenarios with minimal loading times, and that obviously needs enough hardware power to run fluently. Going PC and next-gen has its own challenges, but at least the hardware isn’t a big issue. And so, we don’t have to spend too much time on performance issues and can instead focus our efforts on where they should go: making the best possible experience for the players.

There is a theory that we live within an elaborate simulation, and that the world we know is not strictly real. Why this simulation would exist, who operates it, and what it means for life are often questions asked and generally the lack of ability to answer those questions are why the theory in question is usually rejected. I’ll be honest, I don’t know all about that, but there are times in life where you just have to wonder, and I think one of those moments was the announcement for Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead.

Revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live, the game was shown with a live action trailer, which you can see below. It was…unexpected to say the least. The game apparently will task you with building bridges in tricky puzzles to help survivors thwart zombie attacks. You can see a very brief snippet of that gameplay in the trailer, though it’s hard to make out exactly how it’ll function.

While it seems like a classic gag game it is, in fact, very real. Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead will apparently launch sometime this year for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch, PC and both iOS and Android mobile devices.

"During my childhood, I played a LOT of Jak & Daxter and it greatly impacted me and what I wanted to do in the future. I’m still very nostalgic about this era and how impressive platformers were, how they managed to have multiple and innovative gameplay systems coupled with great stories."

Pumpkin Jack’s influences from MediEvil and Jak and Daxter are clear to see, but what would you say it is about those kinds of experiences that has driven you to make something similar?

Meyssonnier: During my childhood, I played a LOT of Jak & Daxter and it greatly impacted me and what I wanted to do in the future. I’m still very nostalgic about this era and how impressive platformers were, how they managed to have multiple and innovative gameplay systems coupled with great stories. I’m also a very big fan of everything around Halloween and spooky related things, and when I saw MediEvil managing to mix platformer and spooky at the same time, I just knew that I had to create my own game and create my own universe and style!

Can you tell us about any other games or media that have served as inspirations during development?

Meyssonnier: I was working in a video game studio, I worked on several games and was able to talk with a lot of people in the industry who all had something new to bring me to improve my game. Other than that, several 3D platformers such as A Hat in Time were released while I was developing the core of Pumpkin Jack, and seeing how they reinvented this classic style inspired me and most importantly, made me avoid mistakes that would have lessened the enjoyment.

What can players expect from the game in terms of the range and variety in weapons, and how much they will differentiate from each other?

Meyssonnier: While playing, you will unlock weapons which all have a very different playstyle, and which are to be used in different situations. They vary a lot in terms of design and gameplay, so you will never get bored of fighting and choosing the right weapon at the right time will definitely be a challenge!

How do Jack’s companions play into the combat and the puzzles as far as gameplay mechanics are concerned?

Meyssonnier: In Pumpkin Jack, you will travel the Boredom Kingdom with the Crow and the Owl, who both have unique personalities and usefulness. The Crow will be the one helping you all the time, whether it is for fighting or as Jack’s moral support. The Owl will play its part in guiding Jack along the way and presenting the puzzles, so the player never gets lost during the game and won’t search for the objective pointlessly.

"Each puzzle is designed to be unique and very different from one another. The goal is to have a challenging time in a puzzle designed around the atmosphere and level it is playable in."

What’s been your approach to Pumpkin Jack as far as designing puzzles is concerned? Is variety in puzzles something that Pumpkin Jack focuses on?

Meyssonnier: Definitely! Each puzzle is designed to be unique and very different from one another. The goal is to have a challenging time in a puzzle designed around the atmosphere and level it is playable in. Other than that, I take inspiration from other platformers and most of the time manage to recreate something new and really enjoyable. When I can’t find any idea, I just try harder and after several deletes, the perfect idea pops up in my head!

How much of an emphasis does the game put on exploration and traversal? Are the levels large enough to encourage players to wander about and look for optional stuff and secrets?

Meyssonnier: The levels are designed in a way the player doesn’t get lost, and therefore are pretty linear. However, the levels are not tunnels and while not being open-world or particularly big, you will still have to wander around them to find all the hidden collectibles. I also encourage players to take their time to go through the levels, as one of my wills is to create interesting sceneries to discover pretty much everywhere you can go.

Roughly how long is an average playthrough of Pumpkin Jack?

Meyssonnier: An average playthrough of Pumpkin Jack should last around six hours, and even more if you try to look for all the collectibles. The game is also speedrunner-friendly, and I can’t wait to see how fast the community can go!

With next-gen approaching, have you given any thought to bringing the game to the PS5 and Xbox Series X?

Meyssonnier: We actually hope to bring our game to next gen consoles, too. On PC it already features ray-tracing and it would be a blast to see that on the upcoming consoles, too. But first we focus on delivering the game in time on the initially planned platforms, PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.

Will the game feature Xbox One X and PS4 Pro-specific enhancements? Is 4K/60 FPS on the cards?

Aldrup: Seeing how the game runs well on a medium computer, I think it should run very well on Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. I think 4K/60 is definitely doable.

"Seeing how the game runs well on a medium computer, I think it should run very well on Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. I think 4K/60 is definitely doable."

There’s been a lot of talk of SSDs, which the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are both confirmed to feature. What’s the biggest impact it’s going to have on development, according to you?

Aldrup: Those incredibly fast SSDs will actually make development of bigger environments way easier. Until now developers had to develop quite complex structures of streaming in content and making sure to keep loading times as low as possible while also offering a high degree of details. With the new SSDs a huge amount of data can be streamed from “disc” with a very high speed which makes a lot of these techniques obsolete.

Speaking of next-gen hardware, something else that the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are both going to have is a Zen 2 CPU- how big of a leap is it over current-gen hardware in your view, and how is it going to help development?

Aldrup: It is quite a leap and will be especially useful for AAA titles. For most Indie developers the changes to GPU and HDD are probably going to be quite impactful though, but both PS5 and Xbox Series S CPUs are definitely power horses which will offer some very interesting opportunities especially for AAA developers.

The Xbox Series X also features GDDR6 memory- what’s the impact it will have on games in conjunction with the other advancements we’re going to see in next-gen consoles?

Aldrup: That super-fast RAM is a perfect addition to the new SSD and should make the console feel extremely responsive even at high workload.

Backward compatibility is something else both new consoles are banking on quite heavily. How much of an impact do you think it will have from the perspective of both, developers and consumers?

Aldrup: For consumers, backwards compatibility is always great. It offers new adopters a very big catalogue of beautiful titles available right at launch. It’s also very good for developers as older titles can be made available to that new target group without the need to develop a “Remaster” of the game targeting the new platforms.

"For consumers, backwards compatibility is always great. It offers new adopters a very big catalogue of beautiful titles available right at launch. It’s also very good for developers as older titles can be made available to that new target group without the need to develop a “Remaster” of the game targeting the new platforms."

What’s your take on the PS5’s haptic-enabled controller? Do you think it’s something that can significantly add to an experience, or is it just going to be a novelty?

Meyssonnier: This could become quite interesting in case we will bring Pumpkin Jack to PS5 one day. I didn’t have the chance to try this yet, but in theory those new haptic features might become very helpful to increase the game’s immersion, by providing a different feeling for each of Jack’s weapons and also while roaming through the game world.

The Xbox One X features 12 TFLOPs of GPU. How will this impact video game graphics?

Aldrup: Gaming is going to look very beautiful. AAA studios are going to create some incredibly detailed worlds and also Indies will be able to quite easily create some wonderful visuals with that powerful hardware.