Lethal Company was bound to blow up — and now it’s everywhere on social media

17.01.2024 - 20:35 / polygon.com

Just like the gangly, spider-like monsters that scurry through its industrial corridors, Lethal Company appeared to come out of nowhere. Created by a solo developer who goes by the alias Zeekerss, the video game became an absolute sensation on platforms like Twitch and garnered more than 239,000 concurrent players on Steam within months of its October release.

The game appeared to take many by surprise. 2023 was one of the most crowded and competitive years for game releases in a while. Many of these games were massive in scope and created by established studios — but suddenly, a game created by a single person blew up online. However, the success of Lethal Company is no surprise. Both the work history of its developer and the way the game plays set it up for viral success.

Lethal Company is a first-person co-op horror game where you work for a mysterious entity known as “The Company.” Forget about workplace injuries; in this game, you’ll be lucky if you survive. Each day, you and up to four friends will suit up and explore dangerous alien worlds in order to collect scrap materials and trinkets to sell back to your cruel employer. Each world features its own unforgiving biome and sports a bestiary of monsters that bring a sense of danger to each and every workday. The game blends more thrilling traditional horror elements — this game contains plenty of jump scares and dark corridors — with slapstick comedy vibes where you can goof around with friends.

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Though it may seem like an overnight success story, it’s the culmination of the developer’s longer history of work. Lethal Company developer Zeekerss created games on the platform Roblox and later in Unity, according to a report from games consulting firm Naavik. The report mentions that the developer also drew upon existing worlds and mythologies, and “cleverly” used the SCP universe, a collective fan-run fiction project, in its world-building.

Playing the game, you can really get a feel for all of its influences. The game’s visuals blend popular PlayStation 1-era horror aesthetics with a goofy animation style I would associate with Roblox. (I love the way the characters’ arms stay fixed at 90 degrees when they run). The game marries its horror and comedic elements wonderfully. Items like the clown horn might not protect you from a monster, but at least you can die honking it as many times as possible while a friend screams and runs away.

Zeekerss also implemented Lethal Company’s online co-op elements in a smart way. An key aspect of the game is that it contains in-game proximity chat. So if you’re standing in a room with another player, you can hear them talk