The Long Dark has been around for several years now and, given the scope of the game’s story mode, may not be done for a few more. Don’t think that that has stopped Hinterland boss and creator of The Long Dark Raphael van Lierop from looking toward the future and what the next project might be. In his weekly Milton Mailbag, Raph, as the community calls him, spoke about where The Long Dark is going and what could be on the horizon.
When a Hinterland forum user asked the studio head what other survival games Hinterland was currently working on, Raphael stated that “We are currently only working on The Long Dark and have no other projects in active development. That said, we know what we want to make next.”
While that doesn’t exactly give fans of The Long Dark much to go on, something mentioned by van Lierop earlier in the mailbag might give some additional clues.
“In general I have a big-picture roadmap for where I’d like to take The Long Dark that goes out for years (multiple projects — far beyond the current game — I doubt we could ever do it all) so we’re just working on layering things, putting the foundations in place for the future, both for the Episodes to come but also for things we want to do in the next standalone game set in The Long Dark IP.”
Having read a lot of what Raphael van Lierop has said over the last few years I can confidently say that as cool as this is to hear, don’t read too much into it. Hinterland is very cautious about getting players’ hopes up and creating unrealistic expectations these days. Internally they may have a good idea of where The Long Dark is going and what might come next, but players shouldn’t be looking beyond the third episode of the story mode, which itself doesn’t yet have a release date.
Visit The Long Dark game page on Guide Stash for help navigating the quiet apocalypse and keep a close eye on our homepage for more news and what to expect next and when.