Hot on the heels of its successful Steam Next Fest demo, we interviewed Bramblefort studio False Member to learn more about the survival horror’s roots and its stellar inspirations.
Seemingly out of nowhere, survival horror Bramblefort started making the rounds on social media last month by being compared to Resident Evil 4 and Bloodborne due to its gameplay and aesthetic. Set during the Victorian era, it immerses players in a desolate island in the North Atlantic beset by a ravaging plague caused by macabre rituals. As a field operative, your goal is to uncover its secrets by shooting, fighting, and exploring its labyrinthine levels. Imbuing immersive sim elements like offering multiple pathways next to its horror aspects, it is certainly a fresh formula in today’s VR landscape.
After trying its Steam Next Fest demo mid-June for our hands-on preview, we walked away impressed. “To meld two of the biggest genres in gaming successfully is no small feat.” Intrigued by the story behind such a promising title, UploadVR took the time to interview Helsinki-based studio False Member over email.
Made from the ground up for VR since the winter of 2024, team manager Jesse Aalto explains the reasoning behind the game’s concepts, “Being big fans of immersive sims, we noticed there wasn’t much representation of that style of game in VR. In a lot of ways, virtual reality feels like a perfect fit for the genre, and the amount of interaction it can offer when compared to flatscreen games is something we all found very exciting.”
Because interacting with everything in a virtual environment offers its own set of challenges during production, he went further about how they went about implementing meaningful systems, “The way space and proportion are perceived from a computer screen feels totally different when compared to using a headset.”
“Layers can also physically get a lot closer to objects when compared to flatscreen games. It is possible to reach out and grab basically anything, so everything in the world has to be believable and responsive, or immersion is disturbed. In a flatscreen game, background props are often just that, but in VR you can’t just have a cup be a static cup in the background. You need to be able to pick it up, and what happens if you throw it or put something inside it?”
As there are various moving parts in game development and the sheer amount of well-thought-out design choices incites curiosity, the fact this is their first full-fledged release is nothing short of surprising. Jesse confirms that “most of what we’ve learned about VR has come from developing Bramblefort itself.” But this nimble back-and-forth among the tight-knit team helps, as “a lot of the gameplay ideas and decisions come from testing and iterating on things we think could work well in VR.”
It is expected for games to be iterative. In truth, it should be encouraged to borrow from renowned works of art. False Member is candid about their impeccable inspirations: “Resident Evil 4 and Bloodborne are definitely on the list of inspirations. Some others are Dishonored, Dark Souls 3, and the movie The Wicker Man. There are a ton more, some very specific; for example, the way the shooting range target explodes when shot is inspired by the Jak 2 shooting range.”
Witnessing Bramblefort’s clever level design in motion proves how it is not a facsimile that steals from other games’ ideas, but a carefully crafted design philosophy of their own. Being able to find a key, walk around to find a window, and shoot the lock or take another path entirely brings a plethora of options to the player. This was not a coincidence. The studio knows offering such an unprecedented amount of freedom also comes with constraints of their own, and they have made their peace with it.
A good lesson we took from Dishonored is that it is okay that not all the different ways you can approach an obstacle are equal. Some ways can be faster, others slower, some are tedious, and some are more exciting. Giving the player the option to skip things they have no interest in doing, while still allowing them to get past an obstacle by finding a different way through, is something very core to the type of game we are making.
Another lesson we took is that it is okay if players miss content. There are quite a few different events and secrets hidden in the game which some players might never see depending on how much they explore and what choices they make. Even in the demo, there is a certain sequence that most likely has the most work put into it out of any portion of the demo, and it is totally skippable.
Looking at the favorable comments of the demo on Steam, players were eager to praise Bramblefort. Earning a “Very Positive” rating, most reviewers rave about the atmosphere, amount of content, and physicality. As an independent studio, Jesse and Co. are grateful for the reception in more ways than one.
“People seemed genuinely excited about the game, which meant a lot to us. It is also great how much feedback we have received.” The benefit of having a sizable player base is twofold, as he mentions, “Testing a game with a small team has its challenges, and suddenly having a large number of players helping us find bugs and issues has been amazing.”
Finally, wondering if they would consider launching on other platforms besides SteamVR, we receive a sensible response: “We need to focus on one platform at a time, but we’re definitely interested in bringing the game to other platforms in the future.”
Bramblefort’s story is only just beginning, with the full game still on the horizon with no set release date as yet. But it seems like morale is at an all-time high at False Member. “It is still a bit early to say on release, but we do have plenty of plans for the full game. We want to add light RPG elements like character and weapon upgrades, smarter and more varied enemy types, many different weapons, new levels, and more story elements. We are really excited about where the game is heading.”
The Bramblefort demo is available on Steam.
