In the Abyss of Dream to emerge in June 2025

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Studio Chien d'Or's upcoming cosmic horror October Nightmares to get early prelude on Windows PC

Before Studio Chien d'Or launched their first major debut adventure, the point-and-click folk horror The Whispering Valley, they introduced a shorter prelude called The Whisperer to help set the stage. While the indie French Canadian developer's next game, the previously announced October Nightmares, is no relation, it will share more than a few similarities with its predecessor, including a prelude of its own called In the Abyss of Dream.

While October Nightmares will take place in 1970s Montréal and tell a fictional cosmic horror tale surrounding the real-world kidnapping of a British diplomat and Deputy Premier by the separatist group Front de Libération du Québec, its prelude goes further back to delve into another "dark chapter of Québec's history" known as the Grande Noirceur (the Great Darkness), as told through "the eyes of orphans, silent victims of this era." Specifically, it's 1952, a turbulent time characterized by highly conservative governmental policies, when the life of a young girl named Thérèse is turned upside down. After her mother dies and she's placed in the Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Passion Orphanage, each night in her dreams Thérèse is mysteriously "transported to another world." At first it seems a respite from the orphanage itself, a place "ruled by violence and cruelty." Before long, however, Thérèse comes to recognize that "horrors beyond comprehension lurk there," and suspects that there's a connection between this surreal world and the "strange phenomena that occur within the orphanage’s walls."

As with the studio's other games, In the Abyss of Dream is a first-person point-and-click adventure with 360-degree camera panning at each individual node, with a smart cursor indicating hotspots and directions you can move. During the day, you will explore the grounds of the "gruesome orphanage" and "solve puzzles related to an inexplicable phenomenon." At night, however, you must "dive into the depths of dreams to uncover otherworldly horrors" in a grim but beautiful world of seas, ancient city ruins, a cursed village and Lovecraftian-styled terrors. You'll need to traverse both worlds if you're to "uncover the origins of the afflictions that torment the orphans" in a deliberately challenging story intended to highlight the "dark legacy of the Catholic clergy in Québec" at that time. The game is meant to stand on its own as an individual experience while also laying the foundational groundwork for the "universe, characters, and themes that will take center stage in October Nightmares.

It's still a way off, but there's already a target release date for In the Abyss of Dream, as it's due to arrive on Steam for Windows PC on June 17, 2025, with its parent adventure currently still slated to launch later that same year.