Overview
Haenir Studio is a Swedish indie game development studio and the developer of Blight: Survival. The studio was co-founded by Mads Christensen and Ulrik, both of whom were still working day jobs when they started development on what would become one of the most wishlisted games on Steam. Christensen has a background in commercial animation, while Ulrik brought roughly a decade of Unreal Engine experience as a 3D modeler and gameplay animator. The studio builds on Unreal Engine 5 using Quixel Megascans for its realistic medieval environments.
Founding and early development
Haenir Studio began as a two-person operation. Christensen and Ulrik worked on Blight: Survival in their spare time while maintaining day jobs, building out the game's core combat and medieval horror atmosphere as a passion project. The two connected after Christensen saw Ulrik's medieval knight animation work, and they recognized a gap in the market: there were no gritty, grounded PvE medieval co-op games available.
The studio's name, Haenir, comes from Norse mythology, fitting the Scandinavian roots of its founders. Despite working with minimal resources, the team used Unreal Engine 5 and Quixel Megascans to produce visuals that many viewers later mistook for a AAA production.
The viral moment
The studio's first TikTok was posted on April 16, 2022, showing gameplay of traversal and obstacle destruction. It earned over 1.3 million views in a single week and added over 10,000 Steam wishlists. The #blightsurvival hashtag eventually accumulated over 10 million views on the platform. This early visibility got the game showcased in the Going Rogue Steam event in early May 2022, generating tens of thousands more wishlists.
Then on November 2, 2022, a gameplay reveal trailer via IGN (orchestrated by Vicarious PR) changed everything. The footage showed armored knights fighting Blight-infected monstrosities in detailed medieval environments, and viewers were stunned to learn it was the work of just two developers. The trailer exceeded 2.5 million YouTube views in its first week (500,000 in the first 24 hours, 1 million within 48 hours) and trended in YouTube's Gaming category for several days. An accompanying TikTok clip drew 1.9 million views.
Within three days, the Steam page received 1.25 million visits and gained over 33,000 Steam followers. Post-trailer numbers told the story: 1,500 Discord members, 12,000 Twitter followers, 8,000 newsletter subscribers, and 70,000 TikTok followers at the time. Steam wishlists surged 190%, jumping from #166 to #48 on Steam's Top Wishlisted chart. GamesRadar described the footage as looking "like a day in the life of an Elden Ring guard."
Team expansion
By late 2023, the game had accumulated 650,000 Steam wishlists. The team expanded from 2 to 12 veteran developers, and the studio announced their growth in a Steam community post outlining new ambitions. In April 2023, an additional 10 developers were onboarded. By December 2025, the team had grown to what the studio describes as "several dozen specialists across programming, game and level design, combat, systems, and visuals."
The expansion allowed the studio to push further on systems that a two-person team could not have realized: deeper combat mechanics, more varied enemy types, expanded crafting systems, and larger environments. Despite the growth, Haenir Studio has maintained its indie identity, prioritizing the creative vision that attracted attention in the first place.
Publisher partnership
On April 30, 2024, Haenir Studio announced an official partnership with Behaviour Interactive as publisher. Christensen stated that the partnership signals "the next major phase of development" for the game. Behaviour provides resources, expertise, and industry experience while Haenir retains creative control over the project.
Development approach
The studio uses Unreal Engine 5 as its foundation, leveraging Quixel Megascans for photorealistic environmental assets. This combination is central to the game's visual identity, producing the gritty medieval environments that first caught the public's attention. The team's focus throughout development has been on core gameplay pillars: melee combat, enemy behavior, and environmental design, prioritizing feel and atmosphere above feature breadth.