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Hack Your Fears in >observer_ for Xbox One

Mind hacking, abuse of power, fear of technology, devaluation of humanity — these are only a handful of ideas for a horror game in a cyberpunk universe, and they all found their way into our new game, >observer_.

When we decided to create a cyberpunk horror game, we knew we needed to create something unique, yet familiar. We began with the concept of our dystopian future, a corporatocracy of high technology reserved exclusively for the ruling elite, and flavored it with 80s and 90s references from Eastern European culture and architecture. Instead of setting the game in glistening skyscrapers and corporate pyramids, we decided to begin in a crumbling tenement building, reserved for “Class C” citizens. The oppressed, addicted to drugs and holograms, all but forgotten by the elite.

How did it get so bad? After the nanophage and the Great Decimation, the corporations outgrew state powers. Chiron Corporation seized control of what was left of Poland and formed the Fifth Polish Republic, a crooked empire eager to achieve its quarterly financial targets by any means necessary. To control the population they introduced observers, a neural police force authorized to hack the minds of their targets. Being a leech, as observers are known to the citizens they haunt, is a dangerous job that brings them closer to insanity with each memory they hack.

These memories will blur with glitching holograms as the boundaries between reality and mind projections erode. No place will be safe. Not your city, not your apartment, not even your own mind. The result is >observer_, a psychological horror experience we hope will disturb you.

We’re excited to have our first playable demo at Microsoft’s ID@Xbox event at GDC and at PAX East in Boston. Whether you’re into horror or cyberpunk or simply have a fetish for dystopian corporate oligarchies, we hope you enjoy >observer_.

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