We aim to create a deeply emotional experience. For us, horror is a narrative tool, one that heightens the player's sensitivity at just the right moments, making key story beats hit harder.

We don't want to scare you for the sake of it. We want emotions to build on top of each other throughout the entire experience, making it rich, intense, and unforgettable. So that moments of silence feel meaningful, drama reaches your heart, and anxiety is something you can feel at your fingertips.

Our biggest challenge has been finding that balance, refining the timing and transforming the story into a seamless emotional flow.

In these moments, we rely heavily on atmosphere: visuals, sound design, liminality, and deeply human drama.

You know, I think what frightens or unsettles us the most is the feeling of losing control and facing inevitability, the sense of approaching death and destruction. It's the inability to accept this reality. The awareness and the rejection of it. As long as we cannot accept it, we will fear it.

And once we do… we might risk losing a part of ourselves, breaking something within.

Hey everyone!

We're happy to share a new update for the demo with a couple of changes we've been working on for quite a while.

One of the biggest milestones for us was finally replacing the generated voices with real actors. The old voices always felt off, and now the difference is huge. The characters feel alive, the story lands better, and the whole experience is much more immersive.

The game is taking shape! It finally started to feel like a real game to us. We're incredibly excited to share this version of the demo with you.

You can now play the game in your preferred language (even more is coming) to fully immerse yourself in the story and atmosphere. We've been working hard on the quality of our localization.

We've improved the graphics a bit overall. We're still working on it, but we want to share the result with you.

If you haven't tried it yet, now is a great time!

Currently voiceovers, music, and sound effects are poorly aligned. We'll improve the balance in future updates.

Also, adjusting individual volume controls doesn't work correctly.

And more news is coming soon. Let's keep in touch!

Join our Discord[discord.gg] and wishlist the game now! Don’t miss your chance to dive into this unique cinematic journey.

There are only three of us in the core development team (though over the years we've been incredibly lucky to receive help from many talented people in the industry, and we're endlessly grateful to them for that). This is probably the first post where one of the developers will say whatever they want.

We're independent, and nothing is stopping us from writing whatever comes to mind here.

You know, people often say that games are a way to escape reality.
For me, Cognition Method has never been about escaping reality.

It's about looking at it differently.

When I came across my very first science fiction book, it was by Ray Bradbury, and I felt like I was seeing reality for the first time. It was a long time ago. Back then, the world felt dark and closed off. Ray illuminated it from another angle. I started noticing things I had never noticed before. The characters in his book felt more alive than some of the people around me.

I'm not questioning our reality. I just mean that sometimes we get buried in everyday routine. We forget why we're here. We stop noticing the things that truly matter. Maybe we even grow numb.

The game is our attempt to pass those light rays forward. it's about life, love, entropy, and the role of a human being in a vast, indifferent Universe. About the search for meaning. About what remains when everything else fades away.

We explore existential questions not through abstract dialogue (sometimes with them too, haha), but through the player's actions- through choice, consequences and the journey of a hero traveling across time and space.

You will experience a cohesive story with unexpected twists, personal drama, and meaningful decisions that lead to different endings. It's a cinematic sci-fi adventure, and at the same time, a place for rest and meditation.

It's a space where you can reset. Experience something that can only truly be felt through a video game.

This is an adventure that stays with you long after it ends.
A piece of our lives that we want to share with you.

The hardest part wasn't creating the levels. And it wasn't the mechanics.

The hardest part was compressing an entire world: with its past, present, and future, into ~8-9 hours of a linear story of the main character, his tragedy and journey inside a mysterious artifact filled with puzzles, where the player must find all the answers.

It took us years to find a form where all of this wouldn't fall apart, but instead work as a cohesive whole. So that every level wouldn't just be beautiful, but meaningful, and every detail would serve the story.

The entire game was crafted by hand. Every scene, every transition, every visual accent has been polished with careful attention to detail.

And finally, we will soon be ready to show you the result later this year.

Sincerely yours, Timur & Team Cognition

Hello there, and happy upcoming New Year.

We are still actively polishing the game, and we have completed approximately 90 percent of the core content. The remaining work includes replacing AI voices with the recorded real voices, sound design work, as well as further refining animations and cutscenes.

We are preparing for a release next year, and we would like to show you how the game has evolved by opening up additional gameplay through the demo.

Please play the demo and share your thoughts in the comments. We also invite you to join our Discord to receive more updates and stay connected with the team.

Sincerely,
Team Cognition

It’s about time we talk about one of the big things that defines our game: the visual style.

You’ll be moving between two completely different worlds designed to feel like total opposites.

Warm lights, chunky panels, blinking buttons, cozy background hums… all that old-school future vibe that feels familiar and human. A slightly naive but very alive technological world that makes you feel the presence of the people who lived and worked here.

It has no warmth, no emotion. It’s a place that presses down with silence. Empty, symmetrical, logical space creates the feeling of something not made for us. Architecture without an author. And of course, the puzzles that make the space shift and turn around you, pulling you deeper into the unknown. That contrast perfectly highlights the hero’s journey from the familiar and human to something much bigger, stranger, and not entirely welcoming.

Want to keep up with all the updates?

JOIN OUR DISCORD[discord.gg]

• 🌀 When does an abstract idea stop being intriguing and become confusing?
  
• 📖 How can we craft a story that feels seamless, captivating, and immersive?
  
• 🌟 What are the main concepts driving the story and core mechanics?
  
• 🚀 And above all, are players navigating and experiencing the game as we intended?

• We've added a few clues for you in case you struggle to find the puzzle solution.
  
• We've added one more puzzle to ease the learning of the new mechanics.
  
• You may see some additional events in the Prologue. If you're observant enough, you may foresee the connection with events on the Tanmi spacecraft.

• We've installed new terminals on board, with a sleek and stylish interface: everything to make exploring the spacecraft easier.
  
• You may also find the "holograms" across the board. These will give you a glimpse of events that happened before Martin's arrival. Remember, holograms are unlocked over the course of the game and some of them might be inactive on the Day 1.
  
• Spaceship is growing! We've added a few more rooms (not accessible yet) and marked them with colored key cards, making it easier to navigate across the vessel now.
  
• Overall, numerous props and minor details have been added to the interiors, allowing you to explore the spaceship and delve into the lore of Cognition Method.

• Objective system added to the game: if you feel lost on the spaceship, just press Tab to remind yourself of Martin’s recent thoughts and next steps.
  
• The report system has been updated: reports have become shorter, so it's never boring to add a new line now!
  
• An interaction system has been added: you can now take a closer look at some books and items to find out what happened to the expedition.