Posted August 19, 2025 by Hidden Movement
A week ago we released a prototype of our horror game Kuru. It's a single level demo with about 20 minutes of gameplay. The project took us about 4-5 months from conception to release. We are a team of two developers and this is our first horror game. In this post we want to share some of our process of creating it.
A big thanks to everyone who've tried it! Also special thanks to all who made a video, those are invaluable to us! Here is a playlist where we try to collect all videos about the game we come across:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhfaP6JWAc2805B0phG-Ipb5B-30FQMhT
The project started out from a short cosmic horror story draft called "The Hiipuvaara Horror" which was about Alina, an archeologist, coming across a dark prehistoric mystery while exploring an ancient megalith site in Finland. The first chapter, where she encounters the mysterious elements, takes place in a location called "Hautakuru" which is the level that is in the demo. "Kuru" is a Finnish word for a gorge.
After a while we ended up rewriting the premise from archeology expedition to a hiking trip, because the archeology background wasn't very relatable and we couldn't come up with meaningful mechanics around it. The hikers were already in the story and the change was made to write her as one of the friend group. Her new background as a climber with a traumatic past gave the game a more interesting direction to go to.
The first chapter, that we chose for the prototype, was mostly just the setup for the actual story. It consisted of Alina making a discovery and just being introduced to the mystery. For the demo we felt we needed to ramp up the horror earlier, so that the prototype wouldn't be just the "boring part" of the story. This lead us to explore lots of ideas and a large part of the development was trying out different sequences of events, many of which ended up being scrapped. The current demo still has story elements that should be tightened up, but overall we feel that at this point we have more clarity of what the story should be about.
The camp in the canyon, originally Alina would just come across the hikers camping there but was later rewritten as one of them.
A group conversation with some additional background for the story. Cut from the demo.
Stills from a "vision" sequence that was also cut.
The main character Alina was originally an archeologist and obviously we looked for inspiration in the Tomb Raider-games. There was contemplation about whether the game should be 1st person or 3rd person, but very early on we chose to go with first-person view because it emphasizes survival horror over action and adventure, which we found to be more fitting for our story.
Climbing and stealth were some the main mechanics from the beginning. We got to try out the basics in the prototype, but these could be definitely developed further. Some melee combat mechanics were also tried out, but the conclusion was that it quickly takes away from the horror if the players instinct becomes to attack a threat instead of running away.
Exploration plays a large role in the prototype. The player has to find clues to piece together what happened and we also have a number of traverse puzzles where the player's challenge is to figure out the way forward. Other types of puzzles were discussed, but in a forest environment like this level it was harder to come up with mechanics that would fit naturally. Currently the monsters are there mostly just to scare the player instead of being a direct threat, but this aspect is where we see much potential for further development and would like to explore next.
Combat mechanics were prototyped but it didn't fit the game.
The purpose for this prototype was to find out if we can make this into an actual game, try out what mechanics it should have and to get it into player's hands to get feedback.
If you've already finished the demo you know that it ends in a kind of a cliffhanger. The cave system would be the next part which where we have planned after finishing the canyon, but at this point the project is on hold while we process the whole prototype experience and feedback.
For those interested We also have another devlog-post planned about the level design of Hautakuru, so that will be posted soon!
You can also contact us privately at info@hidden-movement.com