Tenebris Somnia: An Unusual Mix for 2026

Without too many detours: Tenebris Somnia is the new project by Andrés Borghi and Saibot Studios, to be published by New Blood Interactive at some point in 2026. What caught my attention the most about this title is its curious combination of concepts, which to the surprise of many, myself included, seems to work wonderfully. Tenebris Somnia is a 2D survival horror whose look reminds me of the early Maniac Mansion games, perhaps combined with the first Alone in the Dark, with that retro pixel-art aesthetic, but this time paired with cinematics shot with real actors and real sets.

At first you might think we are talking about an indie game, but nothing could be further from the truth. Argentine developer Andrés Borghi has previously developed another game, The Black Heart in 2021, a 2D fighting title that blends mechanics inspired by classic Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, with a pixel-art visual style that already feels like a signature. Beyond that, he has extensive experience as a film director, screenwriter, digital visual effects specialist, animator, actor, and writer. Saibot Studios, for its part, is known for Hellbound (2020), in addition to the aforementioned The Black Heart, among several others. Last but not least, New Blood Interactive has published several well-known gems such as Ultrakill (2020) or Blood West (2023), among many others. As you can see, there are no beginners here.

If you want to see the look of Tenebris Somnia that caught my attention so much, just below you can check out its Official Announcement Trailer, shared on New Blood Interactive’s YouTube channel:

Horror From Argentina to the World

In the words of its own creator, “Tenebris Somnia is a survival horror in the style of classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but in a 2D environment with an 8 bit pixel-art aesthetic”, in which the player will fight to survive by solving puzzles and facing horrifying creatures. “The feature that sets Tenebris Somnia apart is its cinematics. As you progress through the game you will come across films shot with real actors and real sets”. This combination looks simply innovative. Just to give you an example, can you imagine playing one of the old Monkey Island games and suddenly seeing a flesh and blood Guybrush appear on screen? That is exactly how surprising this mix of concepts feels to me.

Beyond this combination, judging at first sight, the “real” scenes are packed with practical effects in the style of old school cinema, combined with some digital editing, something we already know Borghi does extremely well. Tenebris Somnia is currently one of the most anticipated Argentine video games among the Latin American gaming community, as well as among well-informed fans from other parts of the world.

Andrés Borghi aims to avoid the iconic “environmental storytelling” used in 90 percent of traditional survival horror games, where the player is forced to read and interpret hundreds and hundreds of texts scattered throughout the game in notes, emails, messages, and so on. In this title, information will be organic and delivered in real time during gameplay, either through live-action style cinematics or fully playable 2D pixel-art scenes, reducing “read” information to the bare minimum. Borghi’s experience as a writer and screenwriter gives him the necessary knowledge to develop the narrative “hooks” needed to ensure the player always wants to know more about the world in which the story unfolds.

In an interview for the Argentine YouTube channel Press Over, Andrés Borghi and Clara Kovacic, the actress who plays the protagonist of Tenebris Somnia, talked about their inspirations, both for the game’s development and for her on-camera performance as Julia, the brave girl we will control in the game. Kovacic, well-known for films not only from Argentina but also from other countries, emphasized that she partially relied on some of the brave “scream queens” of the cinema of the 80s and 90s, such as Sigourney Weaver, one of her favorites, to name just one. Borghi, for his part, detailed several of the complex challenges involved in creating a story that truly hooks the player and draws them in to the point where they want to reach the end and unravel all its mysteries.

The interview is obviously in Spanish, although if you want to watch it yourself, you can do so by clicking this link 🙂

So…

Tenebris Somnia still does not have an official release date, but it is expected at some point in 2026. If you do not want to wait to try it, you can visit its Steam page, which you will obviously find just below, and in addition to adding it to your Wishlist, download its free demo right now! Yes, the title has a demo available on its Steam page, so there is no need to rely only on our words. You can try it for yourself! And once you do, you can come back here and tell us in the comments what you thought about this novel proposal! You know gamer, we’ll be reading you! 😉

Images Source: New Blood Interactive Official YouTube Channel, Tenebris Somnia on Steam