Holstin

Hometown horror with a killer look.

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The corrupting substance gets into everything – carpets, upholstery, and the townspeoples’ minds. Undulating in the darkness in a small town somewhere in 1990s Poland are the terrible, reaching fronds of the ooze. The only thing that forces it to shrink back is the flicker of electrical lighting.

Game director Rafał Sankowski explains the thinking behind this everencroaching threat, beginning, “We were looking for something that would cause a believable survival horror setting that wouldn’t be the same circumstances we’ve seen thousands of times.”

He admits, “In many ways, it’s synonymous with the T-Virus spread in Raccoon City or anything that conveniently replaces humans with humanoid creatures that we can shoot, stab, and decapitate without turning the player character into a soulless mass murderer.

“So we wanted to make it something that is a recurring entity throughout the entire experience – in the story, the puzzles, the combat and almost every environment design.” He continues, “What we can say now is it’s called plasmodium. It’s not alien or supernatural. And it is the reason the people and the town itself are slowly turning into something monstrous.”

KILLER ANGLES 

Holstin’s visual identity is the true headline act. Both Rafał Sankowski and Sonka vice president Bartek Moniewski are pixel art veterans, and their experience is clear in the gnarly 2D character portraits. However, the environments feature a unique approach to perspective the developers call ‘2XD’.