Iron Lung

Iron Lung is a short horror game set entirely inside a claustrophobic one-person submarine nicknamed the Iron Lung. You must navigate an ocean of blood on a barren moon and photograph marked locations, while trying to finish your mission before the submarine collapses or whatever lurks below finds you.

The vanished universe

Decades ago, every known star and habitable planet mysteriously disappeared, along with everything and everyone on them. The remaining humans were those aboard space stations or starships. As supplies dwindle and infrastructure falls into disrepair, they search for natural resources. A mysterious anomaly called a Blood Ocean has appeared on a barren moon; initial scans reveal potentially useful anomalous locations in a deep trench that need investigation. You are sent to explore it in an aging submarine cobbled together from rusty space station parts.

Navigating the Blood Ocean

The submarine's only porthole must stay closed under the pressure of the depths, so you navigate without a direct view outside. You rely on an incomplete satellite map, proximity sensors, sound and a primitive external camera. The camera lets you take the photographs needed to complete your mission and provides grainy, low-resolution glimpses of your surroundings. Success calls for resourcefulness and patience.

A short, tense mission

The minimalist gameplay limits your senses, leaving anything around the submarine difficult to perceive. The horror focuses on building dread and paranoia, and the experience is intended to take under an hour. An original soundtrack draws inspiration from the work of Aubrey Hodges on Doom 64.