An enormous « merci » to everybody!!!

An Ulule campaign full of suspense... Once the first goal was achieved, we had already decided to add two additional levels to thank you! But let's say that we have "maintained the pressure"... But you’ll have a 2Dark with 10 levels and 10 monstrous Serial Killers! ;-)

We will contact you shortly by e-mail. But already, do not forget to complete your Ulule profile (name and address) to quickly receive the rewards already available.

See you soon on www.2Dark.cc!

New goal: 35.000 €

Two additional levels and Serial Killers!

Since the beginning of this campaign, we have created more and more monsters ... And finally, eight levels, it’s not enough!

So what about two additional levels? It would give us ten levels in total... ;-)

Frederick would gladly add a "trainer" who organizes dog and children fights, Thierry would like a vampire so Erzsébet Báthory…

Do you want to help us a little bit more? For even better game!

The new Survival Horror from Frederick Raynal: a return to the source of the genre, highlighting the psychological tension in the midst of the action!



A unique gameplay mixing adventure, action, infiltration and looking after children.



A scenario inspired by clichés from horror movies and cop shows: the children must be rescued from the clutches of Serial Killers!



Innovative technology mixes 2.5D views and voxel-based characters with a unique animation system.



Eight levels to play with a shudder... An unrelenting gaming experience, with some serious challenges!



2Dark is a video game from the Survival Horror genre, based on an explosive mix of several gameplays: infiltration, action, adventure and team management.

You play as Mr Smith, a profiler, whose goal is to save as many children as possible from the grip of various Serial Killers. The challenge is huge, as you have to confront each one of these psychopaths, one after another, in their own lairs, find the exit, save and look after the frightened and not exactly orderly children, confront beings who are thirsty for blood, avoid the traps... and through these different levels, you will discover what is truly terrifying the town of Gloomywood!

You won't be surprised to learn that we want to remain independent and as autonomous as possible. In the almost 30 years we have been making video games, we have been involved in many different adventures. This time, we want to see things through to the end, with your help! This financing on Ulule will make all the difference, and we will also be taking you with us to defend the integrity of the project.

and as autonomous as possible. In the almost 30 years we have been making video games, we have been involved in many different adventures. This time, we want to see things through to the end, with your help! This financing on Ulule will make all the difference, and we will also be taking you with us to defend the integrity of the project. Unlike the AAAs and the major players of the video games "industry", our dream is to create a video game for the people who will play it... So we're offering our Gloomywood Citizens the chance to contribute to the early versions of the game, to help us make 2Dark even more horrible, to perfect and fine-tune it by participating in the Design Forum. In other words, we're relying on your collaboration !

even more horrible, to perfect and fine-tune it by participating in the Design Forum. In other words, we're relying on your ! And finally, just because we are true geeks, Ulule gives us the opportunity to make sure we have a physical copy, a unique collector's edition!

But please keep reading... to learn about 2Dark in more detail. And do come and join us!

Smith's story is truly horrific, beginning with a short clip when you see him discovering his wife decapitated and his children kidnapped...

We then find him 17 years later, alone and still tortured by the tragedy that tore his family apart. His objectives are clear: finding his children, his wife's murderer and freeing the world of all these serial killers, all these psychopaths who kidnap children!

Smith tracks down each of his adversaries to the darkest depths of their lairs and tries to save the children. Gradually, from killer to killer, from one level to the next, you begin to realize why these psychopaths are taking all these children... But you'll understand why we can't really say much more... On our blog (www.2Dark.cc) and in our teaser trailer, you can see Delicatessen Lewis, a cannibal psychopath who wears a pig mask. And this is just a starting point, Lewis might not even be in the final game! It will also be up to you to decide...

But the way Smith goes about finding the children and their kidnapper... That will be our little secret until the Beta version is released!

In the video, Frederick talks about the first level of gameplay, immediately understandable by everyone, quite a typical scenario.

Going through the levels, Smith comes across weapons, not necessarily all useful ones: knife, pistol, axe, baseball bat, truncheons, etc. The weapons and other objects he discovers are stored in an inventory. The long-distance weapons use ammunition, so you need to keep an eye on your ammo supplies and keep reloading your weapon...

When Smith can no longer avoid his enemies, he has to fight them. In terms of ergonomics, you take aim (character orientation) and make an attack by pressing a button. In fact, it's highly intuitive! Like most of the other actions in the adventure (opening a safe, pulling a lever, pressing a button, reading a poster, etc.) which are semi-automated: Smith just needs to be placed opposite the object he wants to interact with.

Throughout the adventure, you will also find various newspaper clippings, photos, books, notes, etc. They are all clues to the terrible secrets and motivations of these psychopaths...

On each level, a certain number of children are in hiding. When Smith approaches a captive child, the child will automatically follow him. Before reaching the exit, he may then have gathered a dozen children or more, all following him.

And the troop is not so easy to manage! Each child behaves differently, calm or restless, and moves at different speeds. In a group, they move along in a disorderly fashion and the smallest event can disturb the progress of the little troop: a strange noise, a dog growling, etc.

If Smith stops, the children stop as well and start chatting or snivelling. To manage the troop of children, there are two simple commands: "Sssh!" and "Follow me!" The first one is to stop the children and get them to be quiet. But they don't stay quiet for more than ten seconds before making a noise again. The second command is to get the group moving again.

In any case, it's very important to protect the children, your final score depends on it!

In 2Dark, there are no tricks: the darkness is total! And playing with the brightness controls on your monitor won't help you to see anything more...

The dark zones allow Smith and the children to hide and to avoid dangers. But there are also hidden traps! So you'll find various things to help light up the darkness, from candles to a petrol lamp to a powerful torchlight...

The candle only lights up a tiny part of the view, around the hero. So you need to quickly find other more powerful sources of light and the consumables (petrol, batteries, etc.) they use. And you need to make sure you recharge them regularly so that you don't end up in the dark!

All the moving characters and objects make a noise when they move, which of course you can hear, but you can also see it on the screen, displayed as blue concentric circles representing sound waves. The louder a noise is, the bigger the waves. You can locate your enemies more easily like this... but also be located by them! Each character has both a field of vision and a hearing zone.

The goal of the game is to find the exit for each level, having saved as many children as possible in the best state of health they can be in. But each level can conceal rooms or secret places where new children may be hidden... the lair of each serial killer should therefore be carefully inspected, even though you can find the exit and complete a level having saved just one child, or none at all. If so, you'll get a negative score, and probably a new nickname as well, like "pussy" or "coward"!

To get the maximum score, you need to save all the children, in perfect health, without getting a scratch on you, and without killing any innocents! And yes, that's how it is, we like horror games, but with a respect for certain values...

From the start of the game, you'll have access to the profiler's office, a unique place with various pieces of equipment and sources of information: files, computers, DNA sequencer, radio... as well as the sofa bed, the TV, the kitchen full of pizza boxes, and a bathroom with flickering lights... in other words, all the everyday belongings of this character are also to be discovered. By using them and analysing certain objects related to the levels explored, you will identify new serial killers and you can access new levels. Likewise, using certain documents or clues, you can discover new areas, probably hiding more children, in the levels you have already visited... so you can improve your score! Ha ha ha…

With a mouse, keyboard or joystick, the 2Dark interface is fairly uncluttered: one command to access the menu, another one to show the inventory and two commands for the children: "Sssh!" and "Follow me!"

The inventory has unlimited capacity, and objects are added as and when you find them. You are free to group them as you see fit and you can reduce the inventory so that just a few objects are immediately to hand: weapons and ammo, lamps and consumables, etc. The left side of the screen will therefore act as a quick inventory. When the inventory, or the quick inventory, is on the screen, you just need to select an object to examine it, combine it with another object, or use it. Only two objects can be used at the same time (left hand and right hand), usually a lamp and a weapon...

In the introductory video, Frederick was already emphasising the need for innovation in gameplay as well as in technology! If you're not really interested in the technical details or you're scared off by technical terms and long words, feel free to skip this bit...

The old school display of 2Dark comes from a mixture of two traditional techniques, pixel tiles and voxels, updated for today's taste and modernized using the hardware power of current 3D cards.

The views are displayed in 2.5D with a system of tiles like in the console games of previous generations. But our tiles use shaders with normal maps for the lighting. In 2Dark, each tile will have its classic bitmap definition and a relief texture, so we can have bumped tiles with dynamic lighting and relief, depending on the real-time lighting of the game. We keep the retro look but with complex volumetric lighting...

The characters and objects are modelised in voxels, in 3D, but rendered as 2D pixels using an in-house technique. In 2Dark, each mobile object of the game, which would be a sprite in a classic 2D game, is rendered by a dedicated voxel shader, which use the same volumetric lighting as the backgrounds!