Tenebris Somnia Behind the Scenes: How a 30-Person Film Crew Made a 16-Bit Horror Game

Tenebris Somnia looks like a 16-bit survival horror game until a real actor walks into frame. That collision of pixel art and live-action film is the entire pitch, and the Tenebris Somnia behind the scenes story explains why the mixture feels intentional rather than like a gimmick. Pulling together what the developers have said publicly — a long-form video interview, a developer diary, and a candid reply on the game's Steam forum — reveals a small Argentine team that effectively shot a feature film around a game, one location and one emotional beat at a time.

Below is what those Tenebris Somnia behind the scenes materials actually document, what remains deliberately hidden, and how the film side and the game side were built to feed each other.

Where the Two-Style Idea Came From

Tenebris Somnia is an Argentine production from top to bottom. In the video interview, the team describes a game set in Argentina with Argentine characters, written and performed in Castellano before being translated into English. That matters for the behind-the-scenes picture: the live-action segments were not outsourced to a separate territory or bolted on by a publisher — they came out of the same creative circle that built the game.

The dual-style concept was there from day one. The creator, Andrés Borghi, traces the spark to playing FAITH: The Unholy Trinity, Airdorf's horror game that pivots between a chunky retro look and rotoscope-style animation. What hooked him was the abruptness of the switch — the way a sudden change in visual language could be genuinely unsettling. Borghi, who also works as a filmmaker, reasoned that he could pair NES-era graphics with a shot movie, so both halves were planned together rather than added mid-development.

That origin also explains the game's reference points. Borghi has cited Silent Hill 2 for the early narrative hook that gives the player an immediate, personal reason to keep going, Resident Evil for the design of the whole structure, and Clock Tower for the visual approach. Airdorf, meanwhile, brings a survival horror background that runs through Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and the Fatal Frame series. None of this is trivia for its own sake — it is the recipe that made a live-action/pixel hybrid seem like the obvious choice instead of a risk.

Inside the Live-Action Shoot

The most concrete Tenebris Somnia behind the scenes detail comes from a Steam forum thread from December 7, 2024. When a player asked whether the cinematic shots relied on editing tricks or just makeup and photography, developer Tobias Rusjan answered directly: a professional crew of more than 30 people worked on the cinematics, using practical effects and SFX first and post-effects afterward.

That order of operations is the interesting part. Practical effects on set mean the actors are reacting to something physically present, which is exactly what you want when the same creature has to read as convincing in a grainy, low-resolution game engine.

Filming by Location, Not by Script Order

In the interview, the actress who plays Julia — Clara — describes a shoot that looked nothing like a normal game production calendar. Scenes were scheduled around the availability of locations that could be adapted to the game's world, and gaps between shooting blocks could stretch to around two months.

Because the crew was not filming in story order, Borghi compensated by mapping out where Julia is emotionally at every point in the script. Clara's job was to arrive at that exact state for each scene, regardless of what had been shot the week before. She describes it as a film shoot in every meaningful sense: a director tracking an arc, an actress tracking a character's interior life, and a schedule dictated by real-world logistics.

Practical Effects First, Post-Production Second

The Steam reply is also the clearest confirmation that the creature work is not purely a post-production trick. Rusjan pointed players toward earlier behind-the-scenes material showing how the game's first enemy apparition was built, and the studio's own framing — practical effects plus SFX, then post — suggests a layered approach rather than a single digital pass.

How the Whole Thing Started

Clara's account of the project's beginning is one of the more quotable moments in the interview. Roughly four years before release, Borghi called her with an idea for a game and a reference image for the lead. She bought clothing to match the reference on her own initiative. The pitch, as she recalls it, was blunt: there was no money, only a dream and an idea, and it might not work. She said yes anyway.

How the Cutscenes Are Paced — and Why You Never See Them Coming

One of the smartest Tenebris Somnia behind the scenes decisions is also the hardest to verify as a player: the team refuses to say how many live-action cutscenes exist. The reason is spoiler-adjacent — knowing the count would tell you how close you are to the end.

What they will share is the general rhythm. Early on, players can expect roughly 15 minutes of gameplay followed by a short cutscene, depending on how they play. As the game progresses, cutscenes become less frequent but longer. That curve is deliberate: shorter interruptions early to establish the pattern, then heavier film segments once the story has momentum.

The distribution matters as much as the pacing. Cutscenes are not reserved as rewards for beating a boss or finishing a chapter; they can arrive without warning, and they are wired directly into gameplay. In one example discussed in the interview, a creature appears in a live-action scene and the player has to fight it immediately afterward. The film and the game occupy the same world, so a cutscene can end with you already in danger.

That unpredictability has a measurable effect on players. A tester brought in to check a puzzle solved it correctly and then reported being frightened — despite the fact that no cutscene played at all. He had simply been waiting for one. The team describes this as an almost psychological mechanic, closer to intermittent reinforcement than to jump scares.

The Team, the Time Zones, and the Newblood Connection

Passion projects still need production infrastructure. Tenebris Somnia sits alongside other titles at Newblood, where the team holds a weekly company meeting to show off work in progress across every project and collect feedback. The studio is fully remote, and the interview mentions overlapping across Auckland, Buenos Aires, and Tokyo — which means early mornings and late nights to keep three distant groups in the same conversation.

That structure explains how a production with a 30-plus film crew and a full game team stayed coordinated without a shared office. It also shapes the tone of the material: everyone involved describes the project as something they chose to be part of rather than something they were assigned.

Borghi's stated design philosophy is worth quoting in spirit rather than word: make the game you want to make. A unique game is a bonus, and even a trend-chasing game can be fine if it is genuinely the thing you want to play — but building purely for money is the wrong reason to start.

Key Details at a Glance

Two notes on that table. The price is a dated snapshot from a deals article — GameSpot's parent company also owns Fanatical, and the piece was produced with the retailer's deals team — so treat it as a record of one promotion, not a current listing. For live pricing and availability, check the official Tenebris Somnia Steam page.

Story, Endings, and the Theories Players Keep Projecting

The premise is simple enough to state in a sentence: Julia has recurring nightmares about her ex-boyfriend being killed by monsters, goes to the apartment they once shared to check on him, finds him missing, and ends up somewhere else entirely, hunted. What the game does with that setup is where the interesting Tenebris Somnia behind the scenes conversation turns.

During the demo period, players filled the gap with assumptions. Some read Julia as obsessive; others decided her ex was the problem. The developers noticed people importing their own relationship history into characters whose motives are not yet fully revealed. That reaction is treated as a feature rather than a misunderstanding — the ambiguity is fuel, and the game withholds the full picture on purpose.

It does not, however, stay ambiguous forever. The team has confirmed that the ending resolves the central question: players will learn what happened and who was in the wrong, with consequences spelled out rather than left hanging. Borghi's reasoning is that stakes require comprehension — an open-ended horror finish that explains nothing would undercut everything the story built.

Clara frames Julia in similar terms: someone who fights for what she wants while still doubting whether she should, which is closer to how people actually behave than the clean resolve of a typical horror protagonist. That characterization is arguably the strongest argument for the film segments existing at all. A pixel sprite can carry fear; a performer can carry doubt.

FAQ

Is there real Tenebris Somnia behind the scenes footage I can watch? Yes. IGN published a developer diary on March 22, 2024, revealed at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase, that covers the decision to blend live-action scenes with the game and includes filming footage. The Steam forum thread from December 2024 also points to earlier material showing how the first enemy apparition was created.

How many live-action cutscenes does the game have? The developers have declined to give a number because it would signal how near the ending a player is. They have described the pattern instead: roughly 15 minutes of gameplay before a short cutscene early on, with fewer but longer cutscenes later.

Who plays Julia, and who directed the film segments? Clara plays Julia and has described being cast about four years before release from a reference image sent by Andrés Borghi, who directed the live-action material and led the game. Airdorf, creator of FAITH: The Unholy Trinity, worked on the game side, and the project is published with Newblood.

Was the game actually shot in Argentina? The team describes Tenebris Somnia as an Argentine game with Argentine characters and locations, written in Castellano first and translated into English afterward. The live-action crew of more than 30 people was likewise a professional Argentine team.