Nightmares Awake

About this game

Latest news

• Announcements·30 Jun 2026Official

  Gogol-inspired horror in a Soviet atmosphere

  Development on Nightmares Awake is ongoing, and we’d like to share one of the most important technical changes that has happened recently.“Nightmares Awake is a first-person psychedelic horror where classic literature turns into the personal nightmares of a teenage girl. The player explores dark, distorted worlds inspired by classic literary works, escapes terrifying creatures, and solves puzzles to help her overcome her fears.”But behind this artistic layer lies a much more complex technical story.Full overhaul of the project’s coreDuring development, we ran into a point where the existing architecture started to actively limit us. The game was originally built on a script-based foundation, and over time it became clear that every new feature was becoming increasingly difficult to implement.Adding mechanics turned into a chain of issues. Any new system could break existing ones. You fix a door today, and tomorrow interaction with objects stops working. The project began to lose stability, and scaling it further became almost impossible.At some point it became obvious that we couldn’t continue in this direction. We decided to completely rebuild the game’s technical core and migrate the project to a new, more stable and scalable foundation.What this changedAfter moving to the new core, development became noticeably easier and faster.Now:it’s easier to work with lighting and atmospherewe can build full event-driven systems instead of isolated jump scaresmechanics tied to the character’s state are much easier to implementThe project has finally stopped breaking with every change and can now scale properly.Current state of the gameIn Nightmares Awake, each chapter represents a separate dream of the girl, and the first one is now close to completion. We are polishing it to a point where we can confidently move forward.Our next step is the second chapter, which will take place in a distorted version of St. Petersburg.We will continue sharing monthly progress updates and s...
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• Patch Notes·25 Sept 2025Official

  Global update for the Nightmares Awake demo

  We have updated the demo version and are happy to share the results. One of the major updates is localization. Our heroine now speaks Japanese so that every visitor to the Tokyo Game Show can understand her. What has changed in the new demo version?The demo location has been expanded to include a chapelA mosaic puzzle has been addedThe entire sound design has been completely reworkedOptimization and shadows have been improvedThe Russian voice acting has been completely reworkedAdditional phrases and English voice acting have been addedJapanese localization has been addedThe result is 15 additional minutes of gameplay and a completely redesigned demo that will immerse you in the world of the great writer's works. We look forward to your feedback!
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• Announcements·22 Sept 2025Official

  Demo Nightmares Awake

  Watch a demo of fears based on Gogol's books.
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• Announcements·26 Aug 2025Official

  Team members: Nightmares Awake

  We have already shared with you the atmosphere of our psychedelic horror game Nightmares Awake — we talked about inspiration from literature, Soviet surroundings, and the psychology of dreams. But today we want to shift our focus and introduce you to the people behind the game who are part of Antelus Games.There are seven people working on the game, but there are three key figures: the level designer, the lead programmer, and the junior programmer.These are the guys who bring the scary, beautiful, and profound nightmares you'll see in the game to life on Unreal Engine 5.Igor KulikovLevel designer, 3D modeler, level artist, UE5 technical specialist. Co-author of the game concept.I am responsible for creating and developing levels, optimizing them, creating the atmosphere, lighting, visual design—everything that shapes the visual appearance of Nightmares Awake.I love absolutely everything about working on this project. Especially the team—the guys from other games, who are fun and interesting to work with. It's the kind of environment where you want to do better and better every day.As for the game itself, it's a dark adventure with horror elements, inspired by the works of Nikolai Gogol and the atmosphere of pre-revolutionary Russia. We strive not just to scare the player, but to immerse them in a deep and rich storyline with mysteries, puzzles, and, of course, screamers.I believe that Nightmares Awake will resonate with players. The horror genre is popular, and our aesthetic is rare: Soviet and literary themes presented through a visually refined and optimized project. It's an unusual and memorable experience that will grab your attention. Alexander ShevchenkoLead ProgrammerI am a programmer for the project. I write in C++ and use blueprints in Unreal Engine. I develop gameplay mechanics and participate in plot development. The entire technical foundation of the game is my area of responsibility.Nightmares Awake is my first serious game development project. My frien...
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• Announcements·9 Jun 2025Official

  Updated demo version of Nightmares Awake

  Friends, we continue to work hard on the project based on your feedback, so we have added a number of changes to the demo.Key changes:Mouse sensitivity settings requested by players have been implemented.Bugs with saves have been fixed.The materials in the room have been rebuilt and replaced, and the shaders and their usage have been greatly simplified.Optimization has been improved, and the quality of a number of textures has been increased.The bug with the firefly getting stuck has been fixed.Added minor interface changes.Added support for wide monitors.We hope that the changes in the demo will allow players to once again immerse themselves in the dark atmosphere of Nightmares Awake, immerse themselves in our universe, and conquer their fears.
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