Blumhouse Games Is Reinventing Indie Horror

While Blumhouse Productions has become a leading name in American horror movies and television, it’s only begun its expansion into the world of video games with its studio Blumhouse Games. After unveiling its first wave of original horror titles, including the acclaimed Fear the Spotlight, at last year’s Summer Game Fest, the studio went even bigger with its presence at the event’s 2025 edition earlier this month. This included hands-on demos and on-site developer interviews for Blumhouse Games’ next titles, the murderous farming sim Grave Seasons and the survival horror first-person shooter, Crisol: Theater of Idols.

On paper the two games couldn’t be more different—Grave Seasons, developed by Perfect Garbage is a farming sim in the tradition of Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, with a bloody twist as the player discovers supernatural horror and a serial killer prowling around their rural community. Comparatively, Crisol: Theater of Idols, developed by Vermila Studios, is a Gothic adventure that has players using weapons fueled by holy blood to take on monsters in a sinisterly baroque European city. The two titles not only clearly demonstrate the versatility and range that Blumhouse Games is taking with its opening wave of games, but also the merits of working with smaller developers with a strong creative vision. In other words, it seems intent on echoing the company’s successful film strategy.

In getting to sit down with a hands-on early build of Grave Seasons, the game immediately feels like a cozy farming sim that saw a resurgence with Stardew Valley in 2016. However, it’s clear that there is something unsettling brimming just under the surface as the player grows accustomed to working around their dilapidated farm, something punctuated by a gruesome discovery. This leads to a growing sense of dread that explodes as soon as night falls over the small town of Ashenridge, usually with lethal developments before the sun rises once again. The developers looked to classic farming sims for that sense of narrative pacing, albeit with gorier results in the case of Grave Seasons.

“I was really inspired by Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland when you only have a year to save this town before it gets bulldozed for a theme park,” explains Son M., the co-founder and studio director of Perfect Garbage. “Something that they do is put reminders throughout the seasons so that you’re constantly aware. I’m also really inspired by Persona, which rewards you for preparing. You know when something’s going to happen, and that something is going to come. So you have to do your best to make sure that you’re ready for it… we never want you to be too cozy.”

One of the biggest innovations in Grave Seasons is that the identity of the killer and their victims is rerolled upon each playthrough, drawing from a set pool of possibilities within the NPC cast. This rewards players going back to replay the game, not only solving a radically different version of the story’s driving murder mystery but providing significant variation to the story itself. Son M. credited the game’s narrative team and code for supporting such constant variation, noting that this was a way to reward a player base known for diving into every aspect of lore throughout farming sims.

“We have a few [characters] that can be serial killers,” the studio director says. “They operate as the killer for the entire story for that playthrough. The entire narrative changes because of that, so that means that people’s comments and people’s homes that you can break into change. How the town is affected by the deaths, who dies, all that stuff is drastically impacted by who that killer is and that route.”

He continues, “The best thing that we can do, especially for a community that really likes playing and diving into every aspect is give you multiple ways to dive into every aspect. That includes having multiple serial killers and having things that get unlocked after a certain amount of playthroughs. We have storylines that change and have an effect. You can romance the killer. All this stuff helps build this alive and living town.”

If Grave Seasons subverts common tropes in farming and life sims, Crisol: Theater of Idols presents a gorgeously realized take on survival horror first-person shooters with its own sanguine twist. The Spanish developer, Vermila Studios, drew from their country’s extensive history and culture to build the world and enemies of the game, with the story influenced by Spain’s distinctive folklore. For the development team, the game was a true labor of love over the past five years while celebrating their unique culture in creating the nightmarish island setting of Tormentosa.

“In order to make something different and unique, we have to create every minute detail,” says David Carrasco, the CEO and co-founder of Vermila Studios. “Our concept team is very strong. We tried to play with a lot of different eras in Spain with different art styles and different architecture, and combine them in a way that feels grotesque and different enough, but plausible. When you’re playing, you’ll find similarities, but you will not feel that this is Spain or a world that you’ve visited.”

Players control Gabriel, a holy warrior who takes on the enemies often made from inorganic material as evil artwork animated to life to hunt down and kill him. Most of Gabriel’s weapons, including ornate variations on pistols and shotguns, are powered by his divine blood, meaning each shot can drain the player’s life as they fight back against the monsters pursuing them. That adds a tactical emphasis to the experience rather than just having players blast anything and everything that moves like a Doom game.

“You’ll have to take a strategic approach and see what enemies are easier to take on with the weapons you have and what locations are easier, because sometimes you are cornered,” Carrasco elaborates. “It’s not a game where you want to destroy every single thing that you see. You will have to take it slowly and decide and face those monstrosities in the most logical and effective way, in many cases, hiding and looking for more blood, upgrading your weapons somehow, and, of course, attacking them.”

Across its opening wave of titles, it’s clear that Blumhouse Games is taking a well-rounded and auteur-driven approach to publishing horror games, without ever losing sight of that key fun factor. With its hauntingly rendered environments and enemies, Crisol: Theater of Idols is looking to bring a sense of Gothic beauty to the world of first-person horror while Grave Seasons blends paranormal whodunit stakes with wholesome farming. And judging by its presence at Summer Game Fest 2025, Blumhouse Games is just getting started with its growing number of imaginative horror titles offering distinct gameplay experiences.

Crisol: Theater of Idols is developed by Vermila Studios and published by Blumhouse Games. It is expected for release in 2025 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Grave Seasons is developed by Perfect Garbage and published by Blumhouse Games. It is expected for release in 2026 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.