Development History

Origins

Blight: Survival started as a passion project by two Swedish developers: Mads Christensen and Ulrik (surname not publicly confirmed). Both still had day jobs when they began. Mads came from the commercial animation industry and described himself as a visual learner who transitioned to Unreal Engine. Ulrik had approximately a decade of Unreal Engine experience working as both a 3D modeler and gameplay animator.

The two connected after Mads saw Ulrik's medieval knight animation work. They recognized a gap in the market: there were no gritty, grounded PvE medieval co-op games available. Development began with just the two of them building the game in their spare time.

Going viral (2022)

Haenir Studio's first TikTok post on April 16, 2022 generated 1.3 million views and over 10,000 Steam wishlists from a single post. But the real turning point came in November 2022 with the gameplay reveal trailer.

The trailer generated 1.25 million Steam page visits in three days. The IGN YouTube upload alone reached 3.9 million views. Many viewers assumed it was a AAA production, not a two-person indie project. GamingBolt described the game as "absolutely brutal and gorgeous at the same time."

The viral success caught the industry's attention and established Blight: Survival as one of the most wishlisted games on Steam practically overnight.

Team expansion (2023)

Around April 2023, the team expanded from two people to approximately 12 veteran developers. This allowed Haenir Studio to accelerate work on core gameplay systems, animations, enemy behavior, and the Unreal Engine 5 pipeline. By early 2023, the team had a working prototype of the directional combat system and early versions of No Man's Land environments.

Behaviour Interactive partnership (2024)

In 2024, Behaviour Interactive, the Montreal-based studio behind Dead by Daylight, announced a partnership to publish Blight: Survival. Behaviour brought infrastructure, QA resources, and experience shipping live-service horror games. Haenir Studio retained creative control over the project.

The partnership was initially met with mixed reactions from the community. Some fans worried about monetization changes. The developers addressed this by stating their ideal model is a boxed-price purchase with DLC expansions, though they note it is "too early to give a definite answer" on final monetization.

2025 development updates

Throughout 2025, Haenir Studio released multiple developer updates through Steam posts. The June 2025 Discord AMA provided the community with confirmed details about solo play, offline mode, the classless character system, permadeath mechanics, and the PvE-only design philosophy.

The September 2025 dev update focused on the team's approach to iteration and polish. They revealed that work was concentrated on the core gameplay loop before moving to deeper mechanics like progression. New art and visual concepts were shared, including dungeon environments and breakable objects.

The December 2025 update summarized the year: the team had focused on foundational systems and tools to support long-term development. Core fundamentals of melee combat, enemy behavior, and environments were brought to a playable state. The developers noted that having these foundations in place meant the next phase would be about "going deeper."

1.5 million wishlists and FGS 2026

By early March 2026, Blight: Survival surpassed 1.5 million wishlists on Steam. The milestone was celebrated at the Future Games Show: Spring Showcase 2026 on March 12, 2026, where Haenir Studio was the first "Ones to Watch" deep dive segment.

The showcase included a brand-new gameplay trailer featuring updated combat mechanics and a brutal finisher system. Senior Creative Director Ashley Pannell did an interview with IGN where he detailed the risk-and-reward design philosophy and clarified the game's extraction-lite approach.

At the same event, Xbox and PlayStation 5 were officially confirmed as launch platforms alongside PC. This upgraded the previous stance of console support being "desired but not officially confirmed."

Current status (March 2026)

As of March 2026, the team is running small-scale closed playtests with testers selected from the official Discord. Public playtests are confirmed for later in 2026. The developers have stated that reveals, playtests, and content will ramp up throughout the year. No release date has been set, and the team has confirmed the game will not ship in 2026.

Timeline