Half Mermaid Productions, led by Immortality creator Sam Barlow, has announced its next project: a sci-fi horror title titled Precognition. The game features writing contributions from director Brandon Cronenberg and is currently slated for a spring 2028 release.

Quick Facts

  • Developer: Half Mermaid Productions
  • Writer: Sam Barlow and Brandon Cronenberg
  • Release Window: Spring 2028
  • Core Mechanic: Assembling a narrative by jumping between and committing to specific "future memories"

Gameplay and Narrative Structure

The game centers on Diana, a child prodigy participating in a 1990s experimental brain-implant study. While the study is intended to improve memory, subjects begin experiencing "memories from the future." Unlike other patients, Diana can preserve these visions, and players will navigate these clips to shape the story's outcome. Barlow notes that this structure allows players to choose between various dark futures, with the game's tone focused on the "really terrible things that are just around the corner."

Barlow describes the game's scope as highly complex, with the player's ability to navigate the story compared to the open exploration found in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The narrative structure mirrors the film Memento, where the player acts as an archivist of specific timeline fragments.

Influence and Development

The project initially began as a daydream about creating an FMV-based Metroid game. Barlow cites the visor reflections in Metroid Prime as a key inspiration for how his games use perspective to challenge player immersion. Despite the early Metroid-inspired concept, the project eventually evolved into a standalone sci-fi horror story that Barlow describes as "way, way darker" than what Nintendo’s mascot-driven franchises would typically accommodate.

Brandon Cronenberg, brought in as a collaborator for the script, noted that his contribution focuses on keeping the horror experience grounded in the perspective of a single character, aligning with the game's 1990s-inspired sci-fi setting.