Cronos: The New Dawn studio on the pressures of Silent Hill 2, and Polish tenacity
It’s a bit of a miserable, grey day in Kraków. The dreary skyline is mostly cloud, it has been raining off and on since dawn broke. It feels somehow fitting as a day to spend time with Bloober Team’s latest survival horror game, Cronos: The New Dawn. I’m at their office in Poland not only to see the game, but to spend the afternoon with three members of the studio and take a short tour around the district of Nowa Huta, which is about a 10-minute Uber ride from the offices.
Nowa Huta provides the blueprint for the world within Cronos, the game’s districts so heavily inspired by landmarks and places within the area on Bloober Team’s doorstep. Not only is this where the Narrative Designer of Cronos, Grzegorz Like, has lived all his life, but the history of the area makes for an interesting seed for the project, a place steeped in history both bleak, and hopeful.
Cronos is a thoroughly Polish game. It tells a story of a lost civilisation, one that has been decimated by… something. Time is fractured, broken apart by this catastrophe, and it’s up to the Travelers to solve what happened, perhaps to fix it. In the two hours I spent with the game, I understood that this is a very personal project for Team Bloober because, unlike the company’s take on Silent Hill 2, which focused on personal trauma, Cronos: The New Dawn seems to tackle shared trauma.
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In my time in Poland, meeting various developers, it’s clear that this country is built on determination, striving against the odds, overcoming adversity, which is clear in Cronos, so, Nowa Huta provides an ideal backdrop to tell a story of tenacity and grit.
The region of Kraków is roughly 20 minutes outside the city centre, filled with bulky buildings so typical of Brutalist design that swept through post-war Europe. As I step out of the car, and walk round a corner with Łukasz Konieczny, Community and Social Media Specialist for Bloober Team, the game’s opening segment, which I experienced just a few hours previously, unfolded in front of me. Albeit without the fallout and destruction of an apocalyptic event. Thankfully.
Nowa Huta was established after the Second World War under the watchful eye of Joseph Stalin, who was constantly attempting to push the Polish people into his regime. Stalin had swept in, promising to rescue and elevate Poland, and Nowa Huta was supposed to be a utopian society under the guidance of Russia. Stalin established one of the largest steelworks in Europe - Nowa Huta literally means New Steelworks in Polish - and the area housed the workers who operated worked there.
The central square sits at the heart of Nowa Huta, and it’s here where the Traveler first takes their steps in Cronos: The New Dawn, emerging from their craft into a world devoid of a population. Sprawling away from the square, five boulevards branch off into neighbourhoods, each of which houses integral parts of society, like the still operating steelworks, a hospital, and even a theatre that was built to spread propaganda among the workers.
While Nowa Huta hasn’t been transported to the game directly, the heart of the suburb exists, now spread out over the game’s environment. Łukasz Konieczny explains, as we stand next to the map of the area, that the team pulled the most important landmarks from the region and laid them down into the game, using a logic that players would expect. So, as we explore this alternate Poland in Cronos, we’ll explore the hospital, and the steelworks, and walk among the alleys and side streets that Narrative Designer, Grzegorz Like, has walked for decades.
As we walked the streets, Like spent time pointing out where his family live, which buildings were transformed for Cronos - there’s no Caffe Nero in Cronos - and he talked about how much the area means to him.
“It’s what we know, it’s in our DNA, says Like as we talk about why it’s so important for Bloober Team to tell this new story, set just down the road from their office. The team hasn’t set out to make a historical game, or at least one where “historical context dominates the narrative,” but the roots of Cronos are undeniably Polish and established based on the history of society. Like puts it like this, “I think we organically tap into real events on multiple levels, creating layered compositions of meaning. That’s always been the case in our previous titles — the background resonates with the theme, and the story feels more grounded.”
Going further, we discuss the idea of collective trauma, one that is forced upon a civilisation. It’s hard to ignore the history of Nowa Huta while Grzegorz Like talks about his design choices. “Cronos is sci-fi, sure — but it asks questions that are philosophical, psychological, and even existential. It explores not only the fate of the human species, but our condition as individuals.” Grzegorz, while walking and laughing his way around Nowa Huta, constantly reflects on how people felt during the 1950sm, passing on stories to us that were passed down to him by his parents and grandparents. He tells of subtle ways that the Polish fought back against Russian ideals, despite living under repression, which becomes a large part of the Cronos narrative.
“Setting parts of the game in the 1980s — during communist repression, poverty, and systemic control — helps us reflect on how humans behave when their humanity is pushed to the limit. When is being part of a collective empowering… and when does it start to hurt? What happens when closeness comes at the cost of pain?” he explains.
Nowadays, Nowa Huta is protected by UNESCO, and has become an important part of Poland and its history. It is a district that has staunchly stuck their nose up at Moscow, liberating itself and overcoming the oppression that seeped into every aspect of life. In 1989, the overly large statue of Vladimir Lenin, that was erected to ‘inspire’ the workers, was pulled down in what seems like the final act of rebellion, and one that symoblises a taking back of control.
While Cronos sets itself in an alternate sci-fi world, the themes are similar to those running through the stories told to the Bloober Team staff about the history of Poland that isn’t even a hundred years old, yet. Although the mission of the Traveler isn’t explicitly laid out in the hours of the game I experienced, they are looking for the reasons behind destruction, behind death, and how darkness impacts a collective.
This is a stark departure from the team’s biggest game, Silent Hill 2, which remade the classic survival horror for modern audiences. Moving on from that is a scary situation for the team, not only because they saw such huge success, but because they want to represent their home and history with authenticity. Not just that, but they want their story to shine.
“Storytelling has always been a core part of Bloober Team’s identity. Even back when we were just starting, Like says, before laughing and commenting, “[we’re] still learning.” He goes on to say, “With Silent Hill 2, we felt we were ready to evolve — stepping into a new era for Bloober. One that embraces deeper, more immersive gameplay — not just piecing together clues, but full-blown survival horror with enemies lurking in the dark and action thick as Polish bigos (a traditional stew).”
The team doesn’t want Cronos to be “just another shooter” though the action is thick and fast throughout. “It was crucial for us not to lose our passion for storytelling in the process, We wanted to ask questions. To challenge players. To surprise them.”
I asked about the pressure that the team feels following on from Silent Hill 2, though work on Cronos started several years ago, and the team worked on both games simultaneously, the success has been a double-edged sword. Now the team is expected to deliver greatness again. While sipping coffee in a small cafe on the corner of a street in Nowa Huta, Like explains how the team is dealing with that pressure.
“The pressure on the team was huge, but we took on [Silent Hill 2] because deep down, we believed we could do it justice. We always put our hearts into what we make. It’s never about chasing trends or cashing in — we just want to make something good.” Bloober Team is wholly aware of the comments made by the horror community after hearing about Bloober taking on a survival horror great. There was a lot of hesitancy, but this turned into plaudits when the studio delivered one of the best games of 2024.
This brings about a lot of expectation, and it feels like there’s extra pressure here because the story is so personal. “The success of Silent Hill 2 helped reshape how the world sees us. But the pressure didn’t vanish — it just changed colour. It’s now the pressure of living up to a win. Fortunately, our team’s dedication and focus keep us grounded,” Like explains before adding, “if your heart’s in the right place, that effort will always be rewarded.”
Walking through his neighbourhood, along with Łukasz, and also Klaudia Sewera, Producer on Cronos, the discussion is very open, there are plenty of laughs, and it illustrates how close the team is. Before Like takes me through winding backstreets to see a Russian tank that was left behind as a ‘gift’ for the residents of Nowa Huta, we talk about how Bloober Team’s ideas develop, and how many members of the studio can chip in with their thoughts, because I got the sense that any Bloober game belongs to everyone, not just the director or producer.
“We like to shape the initial ideas and direction of a game collectively. Everyone here is an expert in their own field, and it would be madness not to draw on that insight during the earliest, most delicate stages of a project,” notes Grzegorz. “That collaboration continues throughout development. Even though we work in departments, there’s constant dialogue between us. We want each part of the game to speak to the others. To create meanings that players can discover for themselves. Information flow is something we value deeply — and so is mutual support. That “Team” in Bloober Team isn’t just for show. We mean it.”
Bloober Team learns from every success, and every failure, and continue to push forward. It’s that tenacity I mentioned previously, the team is their own biggest critic, and perhaps their Polish pride comes into it, as I’m constantly told that the reason the Polish developers push themselves so hard is because they’ve had to fight all their lives, and they want to be the best not for money, or awards, but for respect.
That determination lies within every member of the team, within Nowa Huta, and within Cronos. As Grzegorz Like sums up the grit and tenacity of Bloober Team, he tells me what they learn from each win and loss, “Get better. Keep going. Never give up. And remember: mannequins are always scary.”
Topics: Features, Interview, Silent Hill, Konami, Xbox, PlayStation, PC