Today, Black Lantern Collective — a brand-new indie horror publisher founded by Ted Hentschke — is stepping out of the darkness of the unknown and into an eerie, flickering spotlight, bringing with it 10 uniquely disturbing independent horror games and the goal of supporting more terrors to come. Hentschke, formerly the Head of Production at DreadXP and Production Manager of the horror label at Critical Reflex, is stepping into his newest role as CEO of Black Lantern Collective.
Joining him is co-founder Jakub Bałuszek-Sobolewski, who comes from a rich history in the IT and game development industries. Bałuszek-Sobolewski has been a senior producer at such companies as Polyslash, and currently serves as a mentor and judge at HackYeah, the largest annual IT and game development event in Europe. He is also the founder of Indie Games Starter, a private incubation program created to elevate rising stars in the European indie scene.
Black Lantern Collective’s premier title is the atmospheric psychological horror game Caput Mortum. Developed by WildArts Games, Caput Mortum is set to release in August 2025 on PC, with a release on consoles at a later date. Players will master unique controls to solve puzzles, sneak around, and survive the grotesqueries that lurk deep within an abandoned alchemist’s tower on an otherwise-scenic coastline in 16th-century France — all the while uncovering mysteries of the tower’s former occupants, and braving the horrors that beckon them below… deeper still.
While Caput Mortum will be the first, Black Lantern Collective’s extensive list of independently developed horror games, crafted by genuine horror fans who are unafraid of pushing boundaries, promises terror and disgust for anyone bold enough to delve into its ambitious catalog.
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Black Lantern Collective’s Premiere Catalog:
- Caput Mortum — Developed by WildArts Games: Caput Mortum is a short first-person horror experience inspired by retro 3D dungeon crawlers and survival horror games. Delve into a tower of forgotten nightmares, where every step could be your last. Overcome horrors from beyond death and unlock the secrets of forbidden knowledge.
- CHILDREN OF SATURN — Developed by Boie & Shoray: Impending societal collapse meets home movies. CHILDREN OF SATURN is an ode to lost generations. Experience the end times through the VHS lens of those who have to live in it. A first-person narrative adventure about tagging billboards and watching your house burn down.
- Dead Finger Dice: A Billionaire Killing Game — Developed by Rocket Adrift: Play a sinister game of poker dice against blood-thirsty demon billionaires in this rogue-like dice builder. Find a way to win several rounds of a sadistic poker dice game that the elites have concocted on their luxury mega yacht. Will you be able to break the cycle, or will the body count keep rising?
- Muffles’ Life Sentence — Developed by BossyPino and Nomad: Take back your identity in Muffles’ Life Sentence: a darkly quirky RPG set in a prison where inmates are remade to match their crimes. Unlock new faces and use their abilities in deckbuilding card combat without grinding or random encounters. Interact with a colorful cast of absurd criminal monsters and find out who you are.
- Nightmare House — Developed by We Create Stuff: Welcome back to Nightmare House. Delve into an action-packed, first-person horror experience based on the legendary Half-Life 2 horror mod Nightmare House 2. Use your trusty axe to solve puzzles and slaughter enemies in visceral melee combat while piecing together Emily’s forgotten memories. Don’t be afraid. You’re not alone.
- No Players Online — Developed by Beeswax Games: No Players Online is a narrative-driven horror shooter. Traverse the digital wasteland of a shooter game long-abandoned. Delve deep into a fully realized faux-90s desktop environment. Download games from an obscure games forum, search through files left by the previous owner and peel away the digital layers to uncover the conspiracy of the mysterious capture-the-flag game.
- SOVIET SPOOKY TALES: Green Eyes — Developed by Fishnauts: Immerse yourself in the Soviet era of 1986 during the “Perestroika,” five years before the fall of the USSR. SOVIET SPOOKY TALES: Green Eyes is a nonlinear pixel art visual novel set in the 1980s Soviet Union, inspired by Soviet children’s spooky stories.
- Sucker for Love: Crush Landing! — Developed by AkaBaka: Put the ‘love’ in ‘Lovecraftian horror!’ When a captivating comet named Hheily crashes into your apartment, you are drawn into an interplanetary conflict between light and dark. Feed Hheily’s fire to save the world in this horror-comedy visual novel… and maybe even win a smooch!
- 3 Shots Left — Developed by Alex Hetherington, Dawid “Sugared” Szarek, Piotr Kwiecień, and Hubert Kolba: Slow-burn retro horror set in the English countryside. It’s six months into the apocalypse, and you’ve settled into a lonely routine. One night, a mysterious stranger contacts you over the radio with a suspicious offer. Explore a first-person shooter with limited combat and difficult choices. How will you survive with… 3 Shots Left?
- White Line Fever — Developed by Blast Furnace Games: New tires. A full tank of gas. You could drive all night, but it’s already in the car with you. White Line Fever is a first-person survival horror game experienced from behind the wheel of a one-stroke beater. Keep your eyes on the road and fulfill your passenger’s requests; after all, it’s dangerous to drive at night.
Peer into the sinister workings of Black Lantern Collective on the official website, Facebook, X (Twitter), Bluesky, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit. Join the Discord community.
About Black Lantern Collective
Black Lantern Collective is a group of experienced horror specialists that rejected the rigid structures of traditional publishing to bring you the weird shit that freaks like us want to play. Together, we have over 15 years of experience with the genre, including games, movies, media, and journalism; our team members have put to market some of the greatest hits of recent years. Our team consists of publishers, developers, marketers, and influencers, which gives us an in-depth understanding of each step of releasing a game to the market. And we watch shitty movies on the weekends. Open invite.