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Your Actions Have Consequences in ‘NightCry’
One year ago today, the Internet joined together to help exhume the long-dead survival horror series Clock Tower from the grave it had occupied for more than a decade by donating $314,771 to its spiritual successor Project Scissors: NightCry.
NightCry was such a success, in part, because of who’s collaborating on it. It would’ve been considerably more difficult, if not impossible, for it to join the slate of crowdfunded horror games we’re eagerly anticipating in the coming year had Clock Tower series creator Hifumi Kono and The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu not signed on to help make it happen.
The story will be seen from the perspective of three characters — Monica Flores, Leonard Cosgrove, and Rooney Simpson — and the decisions they make can, and will, have an impact on the other two. According to a recent update on the NightCry Kickstarter, “Even a seemingly insignificant action could save your friend’s lives, or drive them into a precarious situation.” NightCry is expected to arrive on PC later this year.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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