Six months after releasing Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, Ukrainian developer Frogwares announced its next title. Currently codenamed Palianytsia, this smaller-scale horror title has been pushed forward in light of the current war between Russia and Ukraine.
According to Frogwares, Palianytsia is much more streamlined than the open-world titles the studio is known for, such as Sherlock Holmes and The Sinking City. The developer stated that the decision to move forward with Palianytsia over its originally planned follow-up to Sherlock Holmes Chapter One ultimately came down to its feasibility within the current circumstances.
Instead of investing research and development into a game with a massive scope that wouldn’t have the required resources to realize its vision, the team decided it could be “smarter about this, and create a project with an easier turnaround and tighter scope – but still ambitious, packed with quality, and with great storytelling and mystery behind it.”
Little is known about Palianytsia for the time being. We know that is both a horror and mystery experience that “fans of both The Sinking City and Sherlock Holmes should like.” Even if it isn’t completely linear, it sounds like it will be more directed than the team’s past projects. A full reveal is planned to take place sometime soon.
This isn’t the first time the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has had an impact on Frogwares’ development cycle. Just last month, the studio had to make the difficult decision of postponing the Xbox One version of Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. Tons of changes already had to be made to map data in order to make the game work on last-gen systems at all. The final optimization push was made on PS4, as attempting to balance releasing both while being mindful of the team’s production capabilities and the mental well-being of its staff was too much of a task to take on.
