The Many Facets of Horror. Interview with Damian Pawlak, CEO at Feardemic

When thinking about the relationship between Poland and video games, many people mistakenly reduce it to the likes of CD Projekt, Bloober Team, 11 Bit Studios, and other software houses capable of reaching the triple-A and double-A markets.

The reality, however, is quite different. Poland is currently the third country in the world in terms of the number of game developers. Many of these form the growing undergrowth of indie developers that has expanded steadily over the years, bringing with them ideas and creativity that have then paved the way for larger productions.

To better understand this world, within the framework of the SteelWorks Game Fest in Krakow, we interviewed Damian Pawlak, CEO of Feardemic, a company specializing in publishing horror narrative games.

How did your career in the video game world begin?

To be honest, I've always been a gamer, but initially, I never thought about working in this industry. The video game industry was never something I imagined working in; video games were for fun, not for work.

I have a background in finance and was initially in middle management at multinational corporations. However, at a certain point during my master's studies, I decided to change careers and started writing my master's thesis on CD Projekt.

Feardemic is a subsidiary of Bloober Team and, at the time, was fully connected to the software house. However, it was time to gradually separate from it. At that moment, they were looking for a CFO to help with this transition, and I seized the opportunity to enter the video game industry.

The results I achieved as CFO led to me being offered the CEO position with the goal of taking Feardemic to a new level.

Feardemic is a publisher dedicated to the horror genre, but how did the idea of focusing exclusively on a single genre come about?

As I said, Feardemic was created by Bloober Team between 2017 and 2018 as a publisher for third-party games. Bloober was entirely focused on video game development, but they noticed a huge unmet need for supporting the publishing of independent horror games.

For the first few years, we didn't have any major breakthroughs that brought us into the limelight. However, the work done over time helped us grow, and when I became CEO, I decided that the company would focus on exploring the various subgenres of the horror genre

Given your past as a gamer, you surely have a list of games that influenced you. Does this background help you in choosing which games to support and publish?

My approach is to surround myself with the right people, because even though I'm a gamer and love video games, I can always miss something that others might notice.
I believe you should always surround yourself with people who are better than you. 

When it comes to deciding which games we should support, it becomes a team effort. Everyone gives their judgment and expresses their ideas. Furthermore, every single member of the company can bring a game to the team's attention. We are all passionate about video games, and everyone can find something that others haven't noticed. 

This approach also allows Feardemic not to focus on just one type of horror game. I love boomer shooters, but I don't want to publish and play only those. That's why we evaluate each game differently. Every day, we receive and evaluate many games, but only a few make it to publication, and those are usually the ones that express an innovative concept and a strong identity.

Speaking of published or upcoming games, Stasis and Bad Cheese are two games with totally different concepts. Stasis is a space horror, while Bad Cheese leveraged the expiration of Steamboat Willie's rights to bring that style into the horror genre. How did you decide that these two games should be published?

These are two excellent examples of games we want to publish. Stasis is a horror game with many inspirations, like Alien or Dead Space. The creators are two brothers, exceptional in both cinematics and writing. The protagonist wakes up in a spaceship surrounded by darkness, guts, and blood. He doesn't know who he is or what to do.
We talked with the developers, they presented their ideas, and we immediately felt a connection with them; so much so that we immediately asked them if he wanted to publish it; then we did it on console

On the other hand, Bad Cheese is a clear inspiration from Steamboat Willie, and like Mouse (whose creators I know and can tell you they are brilliant guys), it brings this style into a world that doesn't belong to it.
When we talked with Simon, we immediately felt a certain connection with him. When he presented the game, it was just a 2 or 3 minute concept, but the passion he put into it and the way he talked about his idea pushed us to trust him.

Bad Cheese is our next game and deals with important themes. The protagonist experiences the traumas of a dysfunctional family, and his constant eating is how he copes with these traumas.

We can't wait for September, so players can play Bad Cheese on both PC and consoles.

The Silent Hill 2 remake is the centerpiece of the Polish video game industry at the moment. Do you believe it has received a significant boost from the title's success?

Although Silent Hill 2 is a Japanese game, I believe the remake created by Bloober Team should be treated as both a Japanese and Polish game. This is because Silent Hill 2 Remake was not just a graphic remake; it also involved work on the music, voice acting, mechanics, and creative ideas that led to recreating the original setting, and all of this was done in Poland.

When I saw the gameplay trailer, which wasn't well-received by the public, I couldn't understand what was happening. I knew the game, I knew the work behind it, and I was sure that trailer didn't represent the game in development at all.

Then the game was released, and only when we received the first reviews, with IGN Japan giving it a 10, did we realize we had created a good game.
You know, it's really complex to evaluate the game you're creating; you spend most of your time living with imposter syndrome. That's why when we saw the reviews, we were all a bit surprised.

Silent Hill 2 was the first game in the saga to receive a remake, so there was enormous attention on it from the beginning. The achieved result has drawn the eyes of all software houses worldwide to Polish studios, which now enjoy strong and growing trust.

One last question. Feardemic is a growing publisher. Do you have any plans to publish a triple-A title in the future?

To answer that question, there are two questions to ask. The first is: can we publish a triple-A?

Feardemic is a team of 10 people, and at the moment, we cannot afford the publishing costs of a triple-A title.

Then there's a second question: do we want to publish a triple-A?

As CEO, I want Feardemic to focus on the niche of indie horror games, perhaps made by a handful of people. Working with small teams allows us to build excellent relationships of mutual trust.

We like working with small teams because you can build a relationship with these developers, you can talk to the creator daily, discuss different ideas, and trust each other. All things that would be much more complex with a team of 100-200 people.

With our approach, we can support both first-time developers and developers with whom we have built very strong relationships over the years. Plus, to be honest, I don't even know if the future of the industry lies in triple-A or quadruple-A games.

At the moment, we are focusing on small projects and want to give space and a voice to small developers.

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We then bid farewell to Damian Pawlak, with a promise to speak again soon, perhaps at the Feardemic offices to tell you more about Bad Cheese and their upcoming projects.