Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival at Summer Game Fest

You were at the Saber Interactive booth representing Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival. What was that side of the experience like?

DANIRA: The festival itself was a great opportunity for us to finally show what we’ve been building and refining for so long, and honestly, it was incredible. When you spend years working on something, it starts to feel like it might never actually be finished, let alone that people will one day sit down and play it. And then suddenly you’re there, at the booth, watching real players experience the game for the first time. What is even more surreal, they communicate to you that they really like it. That alone brought me much joy and happiness.

VID: It’s always a pleasure to watch someone play Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Revival for the first time. The booth was appropriately atmospheric, bathed in gloomy red lights, with a gruesomely chained hanging body on one side and the Configuration puzzle box lodged in the middle of four computers. The whole scene immediately screamed “Hellraiser”, and was a great setup for what is to come.

Journalists sat down, played a portion of the game, and then turned to you with questions. What could they experience in the demo, and what did you want them to walk away with?

DANIRA: We wanted them to walk away with the feeling that this isn’t your typical horror game that relies on jump scares, but something slower, more unsettling, more psychological – something that sticks with you. And hopefully, just curious enough to want to see what comes next.

VID: Journalists played a section around the midpoint of our story, which gave them plenty of weapons, tools, and abilities to use – machetes, bats, guns, traps, and of course, the unholy powers of the iconic Configuration. We wanted to confirm that we nailed it (pun intended) with the unsettling atmosphere, that gameplay and story had a natural flow, and that the game stayed true to the spirit of Clive Barker’s original vision.

What did journalists ask you most about the game?

DANIRA: Mostly the usual questions – how long we’ve been working on the game, where the team is based, how long the experience will be, that kind of thing. There were also questions we couldn’t really answer yet, like details about the ending, the release date, or how we approached such a theme. We’ve kind of gotten used to that part. Gore, violence, even the more sexual aspects of the theme don’t really feel taboo to us anymore – at this point, it’s just a normal day for the Hellraiser team.

VID: I think the spiciest questions concerned the rating boards, since Hellraiser is such an uncompromising, explicitly gory and provocative franchise, and the section they played went all in on those aspects. Some journalists were genuinely surprised by how far we went, while still staying true to the core of the franchise – the more philosophical debate on the nature of pain and pleasure.

What reactions did you notice while they were playing – any moments, mechanics, or atmosphere that consistently landed?

DANIRA: A lot of people commented on the atmosphere – how the world itself is interesting, with a lot of detail. They also pointed out that the game doesn’t rely heavily on jump scares but instead feels genuinely unsettling and disturbing in a more constant way. Which was exactly what we were aiming for.

VID: Several people jumped right out of their seats. “This is tense” was a phrase we heard often. Without spoiling too much, people were pleasantly surprised by both the art direction and the variety in gameplay. Specifically, they didn’t expect the game to juggle action with survival horror – that they could choose to fight or sneak past enemies, solve a variety of puzzles, and use the Configuration’s powers for both combat and manipulating the environment.

Hellraiser carries a lot of legacy and fan expectations. How do you handle that weight when you’re standing right in front of journalists, answering questions on the spot?

DANIRA: I usually deal with the nerves through a bit of humor and not taking myself too seriously. A little joking around helps break the tension for me. At the end of the day, we’re all there because we love the same thing. The legacy is definitely there, and you feel it, but I try to focus on being honest about what we’re making and why we care about it. That usually resonates more than trying to sound overly polished.

VID: It really helps when you’re a fan yourself, so for us it’s not really a weight at all. The fan reactions have been genuinely supportive ever since we announced the game, especially since there was never a real Hellraiser video game before this one. Overall, we feel like we’re in a pretty good place.

After everything, what are you taking home from this? One moment you’ll remember.

DANIRA: What will definitely stay with me are the people I met and the energy we all felt there. Everyone was there because they genuinely love games, and that kind of atmosphere is hard to put into words. One player came up to us and said, “You have something really special here – maybe you don’t even realize it yet.” That one really stuck with me. It made me incredibly proud of everything we’ve been building as a team.

VID: There were so many moments to take home. I remember Nick Apostolides, the voice actor behind Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil), approaching us after playing and saying, paraphrasing: “I love these kinds of action horror games. What you’ve done here is remarkable. Tell the team they did a great job.”

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival launches October 8, 2026 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Steam.

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