The Chinese Room

The Chinese Room is an independent British video game developer creating narrative-led, atmospheric experiences for PC, console and mobile. Founded in 2007 as a research-driven Half-Life 2 mod project at the University of Portsmouth, the Brighton-based studio became an influential name in first-person narrative exploration games through its focus on environmental storytelling, evocative sound and psychologically rich worlds.

Its early work included Korsakovia and the commercial standalone release of Dear Esther, followed by Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, co-developed with Frictional Games, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. The latter brought particular recognition for its audio design and Jessica Curry's musical composition. The studio later created the Google Daydream project So Let Us Melt and the Apple Arcade adventure Little Orpheus.

Narrative worlds and horror

The studio's contemporary work combines creative direction, narrative design, level design, environment art, audio design and original soundtrack production. Its specialties include:

• Narrative-driven first-person and exploration games
• Atmospheric and psychological horror
• Environmental storytelling and narrative design
• Music composition and sound design
• Unreal Engine 5 development

Following a brief operational pause, The Chinese Room was acquired by Sumo Digital in 2018 and rebuilt its Brighton team. During that period it released the 1970s North Sea oil-rig horror game Still Wakes the Deep, which received a BAFTA Games Award, and took on development responsibilities for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.

In July 2025, the studio completed a management buyout led by CEO Ed Daly, returning to independent operation as The Chinese Room Ltd. The buyout, backed by Hiro Capital, gave the team autonomy over its original intellectual properties as it continues to develop narrative-rich games.