"This feels so wrong" - Iron Lung dev on sales spike following Titanic explorers disappearance
Developer David Szymanski shares his conflicted thoughts on the development over Twitter.
David Szymanski, the developer of Submarine Horror game Iron Lung, has expressed his discomfort online following a sales spike. This increase in interest has seemingly come following the dissapearance of the OceanGate submersible.
"This feels so wrong," Szymanski writes on Twitter, alongside a graph showing a sharp increase in Steam sales. Szymanski would follow up by stating: "I definitely see the dark humor in this whole Titanic sub thing, it's just... like, I made Iron Lung the most nightmarish thing I could think of, and knowing real people are in that situation right now is pretty horrific, even if it was their own bad decisions."
As of writing, those inside the real life submersible have roughly just under three hours of oxygen left (it is predicted to run out at 1PM BST / 8AM ET), assuming the hull has not been breached. In replies following his initial tweet Szymanski expressed his intent for Iron Lung was to make "a scenario involving a sub that was as nightmarish as I could dream up." He was also asked whether this experience would ruin how he sees Iron Lung as a whole, to which he replied that he "was not sure tbh."
Szymanski's work was not the only thing to experience an increase in interest following the increasingly urgent search for the OceanGate submersible. Monad, one half of indie developer Daemonhouse, expressed discomfort with a sharp increase in wishlists for their upcoming Oceanic Survival Horror game, Full Fathom. They also shared a Steam comment from one user, asking whether the game would be playable with a Logitech controller, a reference to the equipment used in the missing real life submarine. If you take one look at the new reviews for Iron Lung on Steam, you'll see that it is full of the same strain of jokes.
It's an odd situation to be in as a developer, albeit nowhere near as awful as the situation that is currently unfolding with the submersible. While it may be easy to make light of the situation online, actively profiting off the increasingly-likely deaths of several people is certain to put a sour taste in anyone's mouth. Here's hoping the situation doesn't add any unwanted stress to either of the developers, both of which are hard at work on their respective projects.
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