The first Sinking City survived flooded streets, fish-faced cultists, impossible visions, and creatures that appeared to have escaped from the restricted section of Miskatonic University.
What nearly killed it was a publishing contract.
Released in 2019, The Sinking City placed players in the worn shoes of Charles Reed, a private investigator and war veteran drawn to Oakmont, Massachusetts, by visions he could not explain.
Oakmont was not a direct adaptation of one H.P. Lovecraft story. It was a diseased mixture of several. The isolated families recalled “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” while Reed’s visions carried echoes of “The Shadow Out of Time.” Flooded streets suggested that something ancient was rising beneath New England.
The combat could be clumsy, but the environmental storytelling was exceptional. Each district revealed another part of Oakmont’s collapse. Abandoned homes contained letters, photographs, ritual objects, bloodstains, and evidence of lives interrupted by something larger than a natural disaster.
Oakmont was not simply the setting. Oakmont was the mystery.
The Game That Disappeared
After release, Frogwares became trapped in a legal dispute with distributor Bigben Interactive, later renamed Nacon. The conflict involved payments, contractual obligations, intellectual property, and control over how the game could be sold.
In 2020, The Sinking City disappeared from several major digital storefronts. It returned to Steam under Nacon in 2021, but Frogwares claimed that this version had been modified and released without its approval. Nacon disputed those accusations.
The developer issued a copyright takedown request, and the game disappeared again.
A story about a city slipping out of reality had become a game that players could not reliably buy.
In January 2024, Frogwares finally announced that it had become the sole publisher of The Sinking City across every platform. The studio now controls the series it created, removing the external publisher that helped drag the original game into legal darkness.
A Different Kind of Horror
The Sinking City 2 takes players to a flooded version of Arkham, home of Miskatonic University and generations of scholars who should have stopped reading several chapters earlier.
Players control Calvin Rafferty, an occult adventurer trying to save his lover after a failed ritual traps her in an unnatural sleep. The premise recalls Lovecraft’s fascination with dreams, displaced consciousness, forbidden rituals, and knowledge that permanently changes those who discover it.
Unlike the detective-focused original, the sequel is being developed as a survival horror game. Combat, exploration, resource management, and threatening encounters will take center stage. Investigation remains optional, rewarding curious players with lore, supplies, hidden routes, and secrets.
That shift carries a risk. Cosmic horror depends on humanity feeling powerless. Give players enough ammunition and an eldritch abomination can begin to resemble another boss fight.
Frogwares must make the creatures dangerous while keeping the universe behind them unknowable. A shotgun might stop whatever is crawling through the hallway, but it should not explain what is dreaming beneath Arkham.
Curiosity Makes Us Complicit
Interactive storytelling is particularly suited to cosmic horror.
A book describes someone opening the forbidden door. A film shows someone opening it. A game makes us open it ourselves.
We choose to enter the flooded basement, read the cursed manuscript, and continue investigating after every reasonable character has fled. Games transform curiosity into participation, making us responsible for discoveries that should have remained buried.
Frogwares already understands detective stories, oppressive environments, and cities that reveal themselves through scattered evidence. Now it has newer technology, greater creative control, and complete authority over publishing its own work.
After surviving a nightmare worthy of the Elder Gods, The Sinking City is finally back in the hands of its creators.
We look forward to entering Arkham, confronting the unknown, and making the sensible decision to investigate absolutely none of it.
Naturally, we will investigate everything.
Learn more from the official Frogwares announcement.
