Hello, and Happy New Year!
We’re Studio Ellipsis, the team behind the upcoming horror game Nightholme. With the new year comes a fresh start, so we want to take a moment to talk openly about the announcement trailer we released in October…and why it didn’t quite land the way we hoped.
Rather than quietly moving on, we want to do this the right way. That means opening the doors to our process, being honest about what went wrong, and inviting you to help shape what comes next.
So let’s rewind for a moment.
Chapter 1: How to Miss the Mark
Although we’re still pretty new on social media, we’ve been living and breathing Nightholme for over a year. We love this game and its world, and we were eager to finally share it with you. Maybe a little too eager.
October 2025 rolled around, and Halloween felt like the perfect time for the announcement. We weren’t completely ready, but we decided to risk it.
We absolutely jumped the gun.
The team worked hard on the trailer, and we really wanted to include early playtest footage. But after rooting ourselves in Nightholme’s dark, rotten streets for so long, we lost the outside perspective we needed to see how the gameplay would actually come across.
We focused heavily on the art direction and animations, and not enough on what the trailer communicated about how the game really plays. That was our first mistake.
Chapter 2: What Nightholme is Not
The response to the trailer made one thing very clear: we hadn’t explained ourselves well.
Some people loved the visuals, which meant a lot to us. But many comments showed that we’d given the wrong impression entirely:
“Another stillborn PvPvE extraction.”
“The industry is full of multiplayer games like this.”
“PvPvE? Disappointing.”
We described Nightholme as PvPvE without explaining what actually sets it apart. That was our second mistake.
So let us clear some things up.
Nightholme is not a standard PvPvE game.
While player conflict can happen, the core experience is PvE: hunting massive monsters and surviving a hostile, corrupted environment. PvP emerges naturally from shared objectives and competition, and it can often be avoided entirely.
Nightholme is not a solo or offline game.
It’s a fully online multiplayer experience built around three teams sharing the same contract for a hunt.
Nightholme is not a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.
You explore a decaying labyrinth of streets, tunnels and interiors, where stealth, positioning, and environmental awareness matter. The story doesn’t end when the match does either. A deeper narrative runs beneath every hunt.
Nightholme is not a shooter.
There are no traditional guns or loadouts. You are the only weapon you have.
Nightholme is not a casual or arcade-style horror game.
Gameplay is slow, tense, and atmospheric. You can rush into danger, but you might live to regret it.
Nightholme is not about power without consequence.
Embracing corruption grants strength, but it comes at a cost. Grimspawn transformations make you louder, more visible and more dangerous. Your sanity and stealth are on the line.
Chapter 3: What Nightholme Is
At its core, Nightholme is a multiplayer horror experience.
You play as a Grimrunner, a monster hunter who enters a corrupted city to summon and kill a terrifying Gloomfiend before the rival teams do. Progression happens inside the match, not out of it. You start weak, adapt to the hunt, and decide when to risk everything by transforming into a Grimspawn: a powerful but monstrous form that drains your sanity.
The game is built around tension and atmosphere.
The world, the monsters, and even other players are designed to unsettle and scare. We aim to make you hesitate, make you brace, and keep you glancing over your shoulder into the shadows.
It’s a game of choices and repercussions.
Do you assert your strength? Stick to the shadows? Cut and run? Your call. Your funeral.
Teamwork, patience, and cunning matter more than reflexes.
Coordinating your team, reading the environment, and knowing when to lay low are key to survival.
Transformations are character-driven and flexible.
Any character can become any Grimspawn archetype. Your transformation is visually unique depending on who you play, and your abilities are shaped by what you collect during a run.
The city itself is alive and shifting.
While map layouts remain somehow familiar, the details, routes, and dangers change from run to run.
Above all, Nightholme is about depth and dread.
It’s a blend of strategy, survival, and psychological horror. You feel it as much as you play it, and the horror lingers long after you log off.
Chapter 4: Moving Forward Together
We didn’t get everything right the first time. But if you’ve made it this far, there’s probably something about Nightholme that’s caught your attention. That means a lot to us.
The game is still in development, and your feedback genuinely matters. We’re listening. We want to build this with you: sharing progress, answering questions, and making sure we’re heading in the right direction.
If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, join us on Discord, our main hub for the inside scoop. Let’s start talking! You might even get to test the game sooner than you expect.
Discord Link: https://discord.com/invite/nightholme
Below is our current announcement roadmap. It’s still evolving, and nothing is set in stone, but it paints a picture of what we’re working on and where our priorities lie.
Stay vigilant, Grimrunners,
— Studio Ellipsis Team