David Szymanski, developer of the submarine horror game Iron Lung, took to the Internet to express his displeasure with soaring sales. The interest appears to have arisen after the disappearance of the OceanGate submersible.
“This just feels so wrong,” Szymansky tweeted, and a graph showing a dramatic increase in Steam sales. Szymansky went on to say: “I did see the whole Titanic submarine black humor, like… I turned an iron lung into the most nightmarish thing I could think of, and knew real people were in that The situation, right” is pretty dire right now, even if it was their own bad decision. “
At the time of writing, assuming the hull hasn’t ruptured, the actual submersible has less than three hours of oxygen remaining (expected to run out by 1pm BST/8am ET).In a reply after his initial tweet Szymanski expresses his intentions Iron Lung’s goal was to make “a scene involving a submarine that was as nightmarish as I could imagine”.He was also asked if the experience would have ruined his view of the Iron Lung as a whole. he answered He was “honestly not sure”.
Szymanski’s work isn’t the only thing that has seen increased interest as the search for the OceanGate submersible grows more urgent. listHalf of indie developer Daemonhouse are expressing disquiet about the skyrocketing wish list for their upcoming ocean survival horror game, Full Fathom. They also shared a Steam review from a user asking if the game could be played with a Logitech controller, a reference to the device used in a real-life missing submarine. If you look at the new Iron Lung review on Steam, it’s full of the same jokes.
As a developer, this is an odd situation, although nowhere near as bad as what submersibles are currently facing. While it might be easy to downplay the situation online, actively profiting from the growing likelihood of multiple deaths is sure to be unpleasant for anyone. Hopefully this situation doesn’t add any unnecessary stress to any of the developers, who are all hard at work on their respective projects.
What’s your take on this situation? Let us know in the comments below.
