The Polar Darkness: Finnish folk horror game finds a publisher

Imagine arriving in a tiny village in the middle of a Finnish winter. The sun barely rises, a blizzard is on its way, and someone has just gone missing. That is the starting point of The Polar Darkness, a slow and eerie mystery that has just found a publishing partner. The Finnish studio MiTale has signed a deal with developer Horsefly Games to bring the game to players around the world.

In short, The Polar Darkness is a Finnish folk horror game set in the 1980s, planned for PC on Steam in Q3 2027, with console versions to follow. You play a journalist who investigates a religious revival movement and uncovers something much older than the village.

What is The Polar Darkness about?

The story takes place in Sysiluoma, a fictional village in Finland, during the winter solstice. This is the darkest time of the year, when daylight is very short in Finland and almost absent in the far north.

You play a journalist who comes to the village to report on a controversial religious revival movement. It sounds like a normal assignment, but then someone disappears and a blizzard closes in. Soon the job becomes a search for answers about the village’s buried secrets.

The game mixes three flavours of fear:

• Finnish folklore: old stories and beliefs from Finland
• Psychological horror: fear that comes from the mind, not from monsters jumping out
• Cosmic horror: the idea that something huge and ancient exists beyond human understanding

If you like stories where the dread builds quietly, this one is aimed at you.

Why is it called a Lovecraftian horror game?

A Lovecraftian horror game takes its inspiration from the writer H. P. Lovecraft. His stories are about people who discover truths too big and strange for them to cope with. The scary part is not a villain with a knife. It is the slow realisation that the world is older, stranger and less friendly than you thought.

The Polar Darkness leans on this idea. According to the announcement, players gradually discover “something far older than the village itself.” The game also uses Finnish mythology instead of copying the usual American or English settings. Juho Kuorikoski of Horsefly Games puts it simply: Finnish mythology and folk culture are weird, after all.

How does the game actually play?

There is no combat. The game is built around four things:

• Conversation: talking to villagers and picking up what they say and what they avoid saying
• Observation: noticing small details in people and places
• Deduction: connecting clues to work out what happened
• Environmental puzzle-solving: using the surroundings to move the case forward

If you have enjoyed detective stories where talking and thinking matter more than fighting, you will recognise the style.

A three-day clock that keeps the village alive

The game runs over three days, and time matters. Characters follow routines, and the situation changes whether you are watching or not.

Here is an example of how that could work. This is an illustration of the idea, not a real scene from the game. Say the village shopkeeper always visits the church at noon. If you spend the morning questioning someone else, you might miss the one moment when the shopkeeper speaks freely. Later that day, the shopkeeper is back behind the counter, polite and silent. You cannot be everywhere at once, so you choose where to be, and those choices decide which events and viewpoints you get to see.

That is why the game can feel like a living place. It also gives players a reason to replay the story and see what they missed.

A look that mixes real faces with 3D worlds

The visual style is unusual. The characters are 2D and based on photographs of real actors. They move through atmospheric 3D environments. Think of cut-out photographs standing inside a model village. This mix is meant to feel strange and slightly unreal, which suits a horror story.

The music follows the same idea. The soundtrack is inspired by Finnish folk music, so even the sound of the game is rooted in its setting.

What does MiTale publishing actually do?

This is the part of the news that matters for the game’s future. A publisher is a bit like a record label for a band. The band makes the music, and the label helps with money, production and getting it heard worldwide.

MiTale has promised a full package:

• Project funding so the developer can keep working
• Localization so the game can be played in other languages
• Quality assurance to find and fix bugs
• Porting to bring the game to consoles
• International publishing support to help it reach players abroad

This matters because Horsefly Games is a one-person studio, led by Juho Kuorikoski. Making a game alone is an impressive achievement, but tasks like translations, console versions and marketing are heavy. Sharing that workload gives a solo developer a better chance of finishing and releasing the game well.

The partnership will also explore transmedia, which means taking the game’s world into other formats beyond the game itself. The announcement does not say what those might be, so we will have to wait and see.

Why a fully Finnish team is a big deal

Natasha Skult, CEO of MiTale, said it is meaningful for the studio to bring together a fully Finnish team for the project. When a story is rooted in local culture, it helps when the people making and publishing it understand that culture. Details like village life, folk beliefs and the feel of a Finnish winter are easier to get right when you grew up around them.

For players outside Finland, this is a chance to experience a horror story that does not borrow from the usual spooky settings, and to learn about a culture’s folklore at the same time.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Polar Darkness?

It is a Finnish folk horror game about a journalist investigating a religious movement and a disappearance in a snowbound 1980s village.

When does The Polar Darkness come out?

The PC release on Steam is planned for Q3 2027, and consoles are also planned. Console dates have not been announced.

Who is publishing The Polar Darkness?

MiTale, a Finnish independent game development and publishing studio.

Who made The Polar Darkness?

Juho Kuorikoski, a solo developer working under the name Horsefly Games.

Is there combat in the game?

No. The game is about investigation, conversation, observation and atmosphere.