Welcome back to Insider Gaming’s 28 Games Later: A Horror Showcase. One of the games you saw as part of the show was Dark Fracture, and we have an exclusive interview with the game’s developer.
From Twisted II Studio, Dark Fracture is a psychological horror experience in which you explore an ever-changing world where reality and nightmares collide. Walk on the edge of madness in the shoes of a tormented soul as you descend into the darkest depths of the human psyche, and question everything you see.
As part of the show, we spoke with Twisted II Studio’s Jakub Śliwiński about Dark Fracture. Below you can find the full conversation. And for more on the game, check out our complete rundown.
Dark Fracture – 28 Games Later Interview
Q: How long has the game been in development?
The current full game has been in development for about five years. Before beginning full production on it, we developed and released Dark Fracture: Prologue, then spent considerable time improving it.
The Prologue is canon and takes place before the full game, but it will remain a separate experience rather than being included in the full release. Its story, world, characters, atmosphere and several of its mechanics became the foundation we built upon.
Q: Can you talk about the game’s inspiration?
The starting point was the body farm. It is a naturally disturbing location, but unlike most horror settings, everything unsettling about it is completely real. That gave us a grounded place from which we could gradually pull the player into something far stranger.
Artistically, H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński were major influences on the alien side of the game, while Lovecraft inspired the fear of encountering something the human mind cannot properly understand. Games such as Silent Hill, Visage and Scorn were also important references.
The contrast became central to Dark Fracture: one world is human, decaying and believable, while the other is biological, alien and impossible.
Q: During the game’s development, has the team faced any obstacles it had to overcome?
Yes, and quite a few of them came from our own decisions.
This is our first full game, and we made a common first-project mistake: we treated having more features as proof that the game was becoming better. After the Prologue, we wanted the full game to contain far more content and mechanics instead of building more carefully around what we already knew worked. Some of that ambition improved the game, but some of it created unnecessary work, scope problems, and delays.
There were never more than three people actively working on the game at the same time, and for most of development it was fewer than that. With such a small team and limited resources, every increase in scope—and every technical or console-development problem—had a significant effect.
The main lesson was learning to cut, prioritize and accept that a smaller number of ideas executed properly is better than a long list of unfinished features.
Q: Was there a “eureka” moment where everything just clicked and started to come together?
Honestly, no. There wasn’t one dramatic moment where everything suddenly worked.
It came together gradually through hundreds of smaller decisions, fixes and lessons. As the environments, sound, story and gameplay began reinforcing the same atmosphere, it slowly stopped feeling like a collection of separate ideas and started feeling like Dark Fracture. We probably noticed the difference most clearly when looking back at older builds.
Q: What features are you the most proud of? What are you excited for players to experience?
The body farm is probably what I’m most proud of. It has fluorescent lighting, old equipment and decomposing bodies, but it still feels like a real workplace where Edward has followed the same routine for years. That familiarity matters because it gives us something believable to slowly corrupt.
The Underworld has none of that familiarity. Its spaces and creatures appear biological, but their purpose is never immediately clear. Players won’t experience these as two unrelated horror locations. Much of the mystery involves discovering what the facility was hiding and why it is connected to this other world. I’m looking forward to seeing what conclusions players reach.
Q: You have 30 seconds or so to pitch to a player who’s looking for a new game to play. What would you say to them?
Dark Fracture is a first-person psychological-cosmic horror game about Edward, a night-shift worker at a body farm in the late 1990s. Decomposing bodies are part of his routine. What he discovers hidden inside the facility certainly isn’t.
As his memories, surroundings and an alien world begin running together, you’ll explore the body farm, solve physical puzzles and uncover what was really happening there. It’s intended for players who enjoy slow-building dread, disturbing locations and mysteries that don’t explain themselves too quickly.
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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