Blight: Survival

Overview

Blight: Survival is a co-op action-horror game set in an alternate 14th century, developed by Swedish indie studio Haenir Studio and published by Behaviour Interactive, the Montreal-based studio behind Dead by Daylight. Players take on the role of the Writhen, a nomadic tribe venturing into No Man's Land to fight a fungal plague called the Blight that reanimates dead organic matter into monstrous forms.

The game blends melee combat inspired by Dark Souls and Mount & Blade with what the developers call extraction-lite gameplay: surviving and reaching the exit means keeping your loot, dying means losing your character and everything they carried. It supports 1 to 4 players in co-op and is built on Unreal Engine 5 with Quixel Megascans for its realistic medieval environments. As of March 2026, Blight: Survival has surpassed 1.5 million Steam wishlists, making it one of the most anticipated indie games in development.

Setting

Two kingdoms have been locked in an endless war, and the blood soaked into the ground has spawned the Blight, a fungal infection that brings dead matter back to life. The developers describe the Blight as "nature's cruel response" to centuries of warfare. The battlefield between these kingdoms, called No Man's Land, is overrun with reanimated horrors. The Writhen, a tribe blamed for causing the Blight and exiled from their homeland, are the only ones willing to enter this wasteland to eradicate the infection.

The setting is grounded "low fantasy." The world is medieval and gritty, with the Blight as the sole supernatural element. The tone is "dangerous, cold, and with a dash of mystery." There are no wizards, no dragons, no high fantasy tropes. Just disease, war, and the people caught between them.

Gameplay

Each run is a mission into No Man's Land. Players prepare at the hub camp, enter a hand-crafted map with semi-procedural variation, fight through Blighted creatures and human enemies, gather weapons, armor, and crafting materials, then extract. Successfully reaching the exit lets you keep everything. If your character dies, they are gone permanently along with all their gear. Some experience carries over to your next character through a bloodline system.

Combat uses a 5-directional attack system with parrying, dodging, blocking, a posture mechanic, and stamina management. There are no character classes. Players build their Writhen freely through gear choices and attribute allocation across three stats: Skill, Endurance, and Vitality. A religion system offers temporary run-based blessings from shrines dedicated to fictional 14th-century deities. Stealth is a fully supported playstyle governed by armor weight, noise, and light levels. Environments include outdoor battlefields, fog-covered forests, marshlands, ruined villages, and enclosed dungeons that force different tactical approaches. Weapons degrade through use and can break, adding another layer of risk-and-reward decisions.

Development

The game started with just two developers, Mads Christensen and Ulrik, who were still working day jobs. Their November 2022 gameplay reveal trailer went viral, and the team grew from 2 to roughly 12 developers by early 2023, expanding further after Behaviour Interactive signed on as publisher in April 2024. By March 2026, the game had surpassed 1.5 million Steam wishlists. The milestone was celebrated at the Future Games Show: Spring Showcase 2026, where new gameplay footage, a combat finisher teaser, and console platform confirmations were announced. See Development History for the full timeline.

Alongside the show, a separate March 2026 developer update video featured creative director Ulrik thanking the community for the wishlist milestone and reaffirming the studio's approach: rebuild core systems from the ground up after the Behaviour Interactive partnership, keep iterating with closed playtest groups recruited from the official Discord, and ramp up reveals, playtests, and content throughout 2026.

Whether the game will launch in Early Access or as a full release has not been decided. The official FAQ lists this as "to be decided." Public playtests are planned for 2026. The developers have confirmed the game will not ship in 2026; the earliest realistic launch window is around 2027. Closed playtests are currently ongoing through the Behaviour Playtest Squad portal.

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