So the idea of The Unholy Project has initially started where we were bored of the multiplayer ghost hunting games because they lack depth. I’m not going to name them but generally although they were built to be replay-able, they became boring after a couple of sessions. And that pissed me off!

But after that initial impulse to think about the same game but with proper depth, my research began. So I can’t say the game idea stood the same as what we initially thought of. More references were added and more mechanics were explored. Which eventually turned that into a Horror, RPG, Co-Op game. 

This ideation initially started in mid-2024, and by October I was thinking about why not build it! So now a little background of me.

Who is Max?

I’m Max, I’ve been a designer since 2010 and in 2016 I founded a design agency named Xebra Lab. You should know that this agency had nothing to do with game design or game-related stuff. It is purely a design agency, mainly designing products. I’ve been running this agency for nearly 10 years, working with so many people and clients around the world. 

With this background in mind, I decided to look for some sort of potential of team building from people I know around me. Spoiler: my first attempt failed! I tried to partner up with one of my friends who has been a Level Designer in a game studio in Germany, but the partnership broke up just after a couple of months in Jan 2025, due to misalignment. 

I was kind of disappointed because I didn’t have a big budget (yes I have to pay people!) so it was hard to find the right people. But that doesn’t stop me from searching for the unholy team and eventually 6 months later I had the core team! You already know me, so here is the rest of the team:

1. Danial: He's my brother, and also our Unreal Engine developer. Just a note, he's obsessed with platting the games.

2. Ali: He's my teammate in Xebra Lab, a great 3D artist so I could not resist bringing him here to work on the game.

3. Parsa: He's an old friend of mine, a talented music composer and a giga-try-hard gamer!

So now we have a base idea, and the core team. Immediately Danial started working on the game foundation. We knew we’re making an RPG meaning there will be items, abilities, levels and more. This requires a specific way of thinking about the game structure. We also worked on the game idea, tried to cook something and I think we did!

References we used to give more depth! 

I’m not going into details of the game idea now, but have in mind a movie like Constantine was an important reference and I hope we can give it a proper tribute! In addition to Constantine, the Supernatural series (Sam and Dean) and personal experience were also involved. Yes, personal experience, which I may or may not write about in the future. 

We also considered some itemization structure form Path of Exile and League of Legends! Honestly there are a lot more micro references we used up until now, but the ones mentioned above worth noting.

Alright, that’s it for now lads. 

Max