Planned Release Date: Dec 16, 2026

About This Game

Some cases were never meant to be closed.

Poland, 1996. The search for a missing man leads police officer Tomasz to Ciemnolas and a house hidden deep in the woods. The building is supposed to have stood empty for years. Yet the flowers outside have been freshly tended, the rooms smell of dried herbs, and someone has recently eaten and drunk wine at the table.

Dismal Night is an approximately 3-hour, story-driven 2D adventure in which a criminal investigation collides with the horrors of Polish folk belief. Explore, question the locals, gather evidence, and solve puzzles to uncover what really happened in Ciemnolas.

Conduct your own investigation

Search your surroundings carefully, examine objects, and read the documents you uncover. Listen closely to what people tell you, compare their accounts with the evidence, and piece together the events fragment by fragment.

Not every clue is hiding in plain sight. Some lie within seemingly insignificant details, while others reveal their meaning only when connected to something you discover later.

A notebook that keeps the case together

Tomasz writes down everything he learns in his police notebook, complete with his own pencil sketches. Every case is marked as open, in progress, or closed, and shows how many leads you have already found. When you get stuck, a quick look reminds you what you know and what still doesn't add up, without giving the answer away.

Some puzzles are worked out right on its pages: piece together a code from scattered clues, or write down a route you cannot afford to forget.

Solve puzzles rooted in the world

Use the items you find, return to previously visited locations, and connect information gathered from different sources. Observation, careful exploration, and deductive thinking will open the way forward.

Experience the dread of the Polish countryside

Rain, distant sounds in the night, flickering lights, and crows circling above the forest create a sense of unease that intensifies as the investigation unfolds. This is a story about a place where old beliefs did not disappear with the people who once held them.

Quiet exploration and conversations are interspersed with moments of danger and brief action sequences where you will need to react quickly.

What awaits you

• A focused, approximately 3-hour story with no unnecessary filler.
  
• A criminal investigation set in the Polish countryside of the 1990s.
  
• Exploration, conversations, evidence gathering, and environmental puzzles.
  
• A police notebook that tracks every case and lead, and holds puzzles of its own.
  
• A story inspired by folk beliefs, local secrets, and the terror of what cannot be easily explained.
  
• Detailed 2D locations enhanced by atmospheric lighting, weather, and sound.
  
• Polish voice acting with subtitles in Polish and English.
  
• Keyboard and controller support.

Add Dismal Night to your wishlist to be notified when it launches.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Generative AI was used in the production of Dismal Night, including for some graphics, music, voice-over and subtitle translation, as well as assistance with programming. AI is one part of how the game was made. Many assets were purchased, commissioned from creators on Fiverr, or made by me personally.

I am developing this game on my own as a hobby, without external funding, alongside a regular job. I cannot afford a large production budget. Creating the entire game without AI assistance, commissioning full voice acting in both Polish and English, and paying for subtitle translation into every supported language would be beyond my means. AI tools have helped me work within those limits. This explains my production choices; it is not a promise of voice-over or subtitles in languages not listed as supported on this page.

AI-generated content is prepared during development. The game does not generate AI content or connect to AI services while you play.

I want to be clear about this before you decide to buy the game. If you prefer games made without any generative AI involvement, Dismal Night does not meet that preference. I have used AI assistance, and I respect that this may affect your decision.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

Psychological horror for adult players. Contains violence and blood (murder, gunfire, descriptions of violent death and self-harm), supernatural mind control, morally ambiguous revenge, disturbing horror imagery, alcohol use, frequent strong language and a brief verbal reference to sexual violence.