The Stanley Parable was on the minds of many a gamer recently, thanks to the release of the Ultra Deluxe edition. The narrative game uses humor to deal with video games in a very meta sense, but those ideas could just as easily be applied to other genres, like horror. Apparently, we’re getting something along those lines from a new woman-led indie studio.
Over the past few months, several job listings (compiled by ResetEra user Toumari) have hinted at a new horror game project from the combined minds of several indie developers. The unnamed game is being developed by an also-unnamed studio based in Berlin, Germany. Alicia Contestabile co-founded Crows Crows Crows, the studio behind The Stanley Parable. According to LinkedIn, she is the CEO and creative director of the new studio, which has been colloquially referred to as Swizzle Kiss (after Contestabile’s online handle). The studio is “making an unannounced narrative horror game coming to PlayStation 5 and PC.”
In November of last year, Swizzle Kiss began the hiring process for a producer. This month, it put up a job listing for a lead programmer. Both listings tout the studio’s creative minds, and the list includes the likes of Arshea Bimal (producer at Funomena) Jessica Curry (composer on Amnesia: A Name for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture), William Pugh (co-designer of The Stanley Parable), and Tom Schley (sound designer on The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe). The listings also state that the studio is “fully funded and [a] Sony PlayStation partner,” hence the PlayStation 5 and PC platform targets.
As for the game itself, we have no clue as to what it will be (or even be called). ResetEra user salomamo managed to dig up an image from the studio’s Notion page. As seen at the top of this article, it shows a dark forest in the moonlight. Of course, it may not be related to the project at all; we just don’t know. Summer Game Fest this June could be a good place to learn more if Swizzle Kiss has anything to share.
