“A game for everyone is a game for no one,” is the motto on the website of Arrowhead Studios, the developers behind the Helldivers franchise. And while they may not have said much during our conversation, it’s clear that ex-Arrowhead developers Linus Larsson and Mattias Snygg have a specific audience in mind as they head into the final stages of production. After an extensive behind closed doors gameplay preview of Silver Pines’ second level, I sat down with two of the developers to talk about the inspirations behind their upcoming survival horror metroidvania and what players can expect when it releases on October 8th, 2026.
Silver Pines follows Red Walker, a down on his luck private investigator who finds himself in the town of Silver Pines searching for missing musician Eddie Velvet. As a storm threatens the abandoned area, Walker’s search quickly becomes a nightmarish descent filled with shadowy monsters, mysteries, and psychological torment as he gets closer and closer to the truth.
Wych Elm Games, the five-person studio behind Silver Pines, is entirely remote, with developers spread across Norway and Sweden. Working day in and day out via video-based Discord calls, the team is entering the crunch stage of the game’s development as they near the home stretch. Linus is the game’s level designer, while Mattias works on the art and animation. Both share writing credits on the game, but the two men stress that everyone in their tight-knit group shares multiple duties, which helps spread the workload and teaches skills they might not otherwise have had time to develop in the AAA space.
Linus and Mattias aren’t shy about the influences that helped bring Silver Pines to life. On the video game side, the earlier entries in the Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises inspire Silver Pines' moment-to-moment gameplay. The combat features limited weapon ammunition, herb combinations for healing, and more than a few puzzles to solve. While the devs remain tight-lipped about the name and nature of the shadowy enemies players will be facing (their discovery is a part of the game’s ongoing narrative), they stress that the creatures are designed with the idea that they “harmonize” with the rest of the game’s vibe and atmosphere, and are created for “surreality first”.
To combat these threats, players will have access to five or six melee weapons, 10+ ranged weapons, and a couple of throwable items, most of which will have upgrade paths tied to players investing in the game’s world and solving puzzles. The memento system featured in both demo versions will further help players along, providing light builds to invest in.
Whether Walker can dodge a little faster or conserve ammo while doing more damage, Linus stresses that there is a “dance with this kind of balance”, one that can provide synergies for players but not at the cost of ruining the game’s resource economy and challenge. Speaking of challenge, Linus notes that players shouldn’t expect much in the way of hand-holding when playing on the normal difficulty level: “If you aren’t smart with your resources, you will have a more difficult time. But if you’re using those items for the right moments, you are also going to feel that power trip.”
Cinematically, many have noted the influence of John Carpenter’s oeuvre, ’90s television shows, Jacob’s Ladder, and Lost Highway on the game. However, during our interview, the developers mentioned some surprising art inspirations from the likes of artists such as Francis Bacon, Francisco Goya, and Junji Ito. Mattias specifically cites Bacon’s portrayal of the human psyche and Goya’s “great empathy for the darkest subjects” as foundational in understanding the dark nature of Silver Pines.
To bring that surreal world to life, the game uses a unique rotoscoped animation style. In creating this, Mattias and the rest of the developers use themselves as visual reference points for the animation (again furthering this team's development across multiple skill sets over the course of the game’s development). In doing so, the devs have concocted a striking visual style that feels right at home with the game’s neo-noir and surreal horror underpinnings, all while adding personal and cultural touchstones such as the inclusion of Moto Boy — a Swedish indie music darling — or the Swedish submachine gun that will inevitably find its way into players’ arsenal.
As for the game’s post-launch? The devs don’t rule out some form of replayable mode down the line. This includes unlockables like bonus weapons for a potential New Game Plus. But for now, the devs want Red Walker to feel vulnerable when players begin their first playthrough of the game. After all, giving Walker an M16 doesn’t engender tension when he can mow down scores of enemies. So, for the time being, his journey is one of discovery about himself and the nightmare town he finds himself trapped in.
The culmination of these many ‘90s-based references may sound like a game beholden to the past, but for this author, what Silver Pines represents feels closer to Remedy Entertainment’s landmark sequel, Alan Wake 2. That game was deeply indebted to the horror and neo-noir stories of the past, yet it charted its own course through Remedy’s rich storytelling and its refusal to make the same kind of game twice. That’s what Silver Pines evokes too: an old-school throwback to the ‘90s survival horror video games of yore, handcrafted by developer veterans who want to offer players something a little more unique and personal among the many games releasing this Fall.
That personality imbued within the game is the defining trait that makes Silver Pines so fascinating. Even amid flashes of screaming and distorted faces, harrowing combat against shadowy foes, light puzzle solving, and lingering mysteries that threaten to unravel Red Walker as much as the town itself, Silver Pines feels like a labor of love decades in the making. The competition in the game space will be fierce this fall as Rockstar’s juggernaut Grand Theft Auto VI releases on November 19th.
As a result of this, a narrow corridor has formed in which a litany of games are about to be released as they battle for players’ dollars, time, and relevance. But both Linus and Mattias have been in game development for a long time. While they aren’t quite ready to tackle the fast approaching post-mortem to come after the game has been released to the masses, seeing Silver Pines so close to the finish line, and creating a game with this aesthetic and storytelling approach, is a big check off the proverbial to-do list as their dream manifests into reality in just a few short weeks. What could be better than that?
Silver Pines has a demo out now on Steam and releases for all platforms on October 8th, 2026.
