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Haenir Studio - Version 14 vs Version 15
Aug 27, 2026, 01:16 AM
Removed an unverifiable social-platform view count
Aug 27, 2026, 01:18 AM
Corrected the 650,000 wishlist date, removed a double-counted hiring figure, and attributed the several-dozen team expansion to Behaviour Interactive
11Overview22Haenir Studio is a Scandinavian 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.44Founding and Early Development66Haenir 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.88The 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.1010The Viral Moment1212The studio's first TikTok was posted on April 16, 2022. This shows gameplay of traversal and obstacle destruction. It earned over 1.3 million views in a single week and added over 10,000 Steam wishlists. This early visibility got the game showcased in the Going Rogue Steam event in early May 2022, generating tens of thousands more wishlists.1414Then on November 2, 2022, a gameplay reveal trailer via a major press partner 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.1616Within three days, the store listing 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. The footage was widely described as looking "like a day in the life of an Elden Ring guard."1818Team Expansion2020By 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."21+The game passed 650,000 Steam wishlists in March 2023. Around that period the studio grew from its two founders to roughly a dozen developers, announced in a Steam community post outlining new ambitions. The far larger expansion came after the publishing deal, and it happened at the publisher rather than at Haenir. In March 2025 the studio put it directly: what started as two developers at Haenir "has now expanded to include several dozen full-time developers at Behaviour, working to help execute their creative vision," adding level designers, narrative writers, programmers, UI and UX developers, concept and VFX artists, animators, sound designers, QA testers, directors and producers.2222The 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.2424Publisher Partnership2626On 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.27+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. The division of labour was spelled out more precisely a year later: the game is developed, funded and published by Behaviour Interactive, in partnership with Haenir Studio as the original creators and creative directors, with Ulrik and Mads remaining closely involved and guiding the creative direction.2828Development Approach3030The 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.3232Studio Presence3434The publisher's press material describes Haenir Studio as a small independent game intellectual property development company based in Scandinavia, and points readers to a studio domain for more information. That domain no longer resolves: it returns a gone status and its certificate belongs to a hosting provider rather than the studio, so the press kit's link is stale.3636Active first-party presence has instead consolidated around the game's own channels rather than a studio homepage, with a social hub page still listing the studio's accounts. Anyone tracing Haenir's output should treat the game's official channels as the current source.
