Blend of L.A. Noire and Uncharted with touch of Lovecraft. Come Midnight is inconsolable project by People Can Fly

With games such as Painkiller and Bulletstorm, the tag of shooter specialists has been pinned on People Can Fly. However, Come Midnight, which is Adrian Chmielarz's “dream project,” could push the studio on a completely different path.

Christian Pieniazek

Source: People Can Fly / The Astronauts

It would seem that after the great success of Painkiller, the Polish studio People Can Fly didn't have to worry about finances. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the developers were paid "money upfront" for their work and, as Adrian Chmielarz recalled years later, they never saw any royalties." Nonetheless, the developers managed to save "some money," carry out, and then start working on a new project - Come Midnight. Let's check what this game was supposed to be and how its fate unfolded.

Midnight is coming

As Adrian Chmielarz argues, Come Midnight was his dream project. The game was supposed to be an adventure action game combining "the worlds of Raymond Chandler and H.P. Lovecraft," along with noir motifs from the 1940s. The protagonist of this story would be Mike Ellroy - a private detective who outsmarted death and came back from the afterlife with a new skill, allowing him to see the last 30 seconds of people's lives (though he needed to touch the corpse to do so).

What's interesting, the writer Jacek Komuda was involved in the development of the story in Come Midnight. As Marcin Kosman writes in his book titled Not Only The Witcher: The History of Polish Video Games (Polish title: "Nie tylko Wiedzmin. Historia polskich gier komputerowych"), the scriptwriter was supposed to say about Come Midnight that:

It would be one of the best and most innovative games if only it had been given the chance to see the light of day.

The gameplay in Come Midnight was intended to blend horror elements with solutions from L.A. Noire and the Uncharted series. During the game, we would watch the action from a third-person perspective, and while conducting an investigation, we would often reach for melee weapons (like a pipe) or guns (like a shotgun) to take care of opponents.

Blend of L.A. Noire and Uncharted with touch of Lovecraft. Come Midnight is inconsolable project by People Can Fly - picture #1
This is how the Come Midnight menu could look like; the options would end up on notepad sheets. Source: People Can Fly / The Astronauts.

Problematic beginnings

At first, the developers created just the foundation of their project, then they invited top publishers to work with them. The reception of the presentation, which took place in 2004, was rather positive... except for the reaction of the Ubisoft representative. As Chmielarz recalls, she "got furious during the presentation", calling it "nonsense," apparently expecting a beta version showcase, not pre-production materials. Fortunately, the devs managed to appease her with the help of a technological demo.

Even though Come Midnight appealed to industry giants, Adrian Chmielarz's team didn't receive any contact from them for a long time. According to what the developers unofficially found out, this was because they were expected to create a "new Painkiller," meaning a dynamic shooter, rather than an exceptional and therefore risky project.

The developers, facing dwindling funds, had no option but to set Come Midnight aside and attempt to fulfill the publishers' demands by beginning work on a shooter game named Ravenwolf. Unexpectedly, however, THQ expressed interest in Come Midnight and after negotiations agreed to become the publisher of this game. So Mike Ellroy's adventure was saved... or at least it seemed so.

Blend of L.A. Noire and Uncharted with touch of Lovecraft. Come Midnight is inconsolable project by People Can Fly - picture #2
Come Midnight technological demo. Source: People Can Fly / The Astronauts.

Unsuccessful collab with THQ

The developers rolled up their sleeves and got down to work. People Can Fly developed an internal demo version of their game, along with extensive project documentation, maps and location designs, concept arts, models, animations, sounds, and music.

Even though the developers believed the project was on track for a debut (with predictions that Come Midnight would be released in 2007), THQ had a different plan for its operations. As Chmielarz writes:

Rumour was that THQ was getting out of the development in Europe and they were killing European projects left and right. Supposedly, it [cancellation] was between us and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. They chose the latter, and, to be fair, that was probably the right choice.

Nonetheless, the way the publisher communicated this news to the devs was below all standards. During a conversation with Eurogamer in 2014, Adrian Chmielarz didn't mince his words:

THQ seriously f***ed us over at this point. (...) 'OK we're just cancelling the game - see ya.' (...) Three weeks before, they cancelled all communication - no phone calls, stopped answering emails.

Blend of L.A. Noire and Uncharted with touch of Lovecraft. Come Midnight is inconsolable project by People Can Fly - picture #3
Concept art from Come Midnight. Source: People Can Fly / The Astronauts.

What happened next?

After the cancellation of Come Midnight, the People Can Fly team faced big financial problems. As Kosman writes:

As a last resort, they called Epic Games for a copy of Unreal Engine 3. - Well, finally - they heard from the studio responsible for, among others, the Unreal Tournament series.

The rest is history. Epic Games turned out to be a serious partner who was pleased with the collab established with People Can Fly. The publisher first entrusted the Poles with creating several multiplayer maps for the Gears of War on PC, and then - preparing the entire PC conversion of this game. In 2007, Epic Games acquired the majority shares in People Can Fly, and the studio was able to start working on its next original project, an FPS titled Bulletstorm.

In the following years, People Can Fly built a reputation as specialists in shooter games. In 2012, Adrian Chmielarz, Michal Kosieradzki, and Andrzej Poznanski left the team and founded a new studio - The Astronauts. Its first project was The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, an FPP adventure game that allows us to become... a private detective, who has paranormal abilities. Nonetheless, it was a fully independent game, not connected in any way with Come Midnight.

The rights to the latter are now with THQ Nordic, and it's unlikely that the publisher will choose to bring this project back to life. Nonetheless, Chmielarz himself still has the "desire to return to the pulp noir genre." So there is a chance that Mike Ellroy's adventure will one day have a spiritual successor.

Blend of L.A. Noire and Uncharted with touch of Lovecraft. Come Midnight is inconsolable project by People Can Fly - picture #4
Another concept art from Come Midnight. Source: People Can Fly / The Astronauts.

Gameplay and other materials from Come Midnight

In 2020, Adrian Chmielarz not only revealed a few behind-the-scenes details of the Come Midnight project to the world but also released a lot of materials related to this production. Among them, the gameplay fragments are leading the way, allowing you to see how this title was supposed to look in action. Nonetheless, it's important to mention that, as the dev himself warns:

The video comes from an internal demo version, which was never meant to be seen by public. This means that everything is unstable, full of bugs, unfinished, full of placeholder symbols, and very unpolished.

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Christian Pieniazek

Author: Christian Pieniazek

Started working with Gamepressure.com in August 2016. Although the Game Encyclopedia has been his pride and joy from the beginning, he also writes for the Newsroom and the Editorial section. Gained professional experience through a now-defunct service, in which he worked for almost three years. Graduated in Cultural Studies at the AGH University of Krakow. Runs his own business, jogs, cycles, loves mountain hiking, is a fan of nu metal, is interested in space, and of course, enjoys playing games. Feels best in action games with an open world and RPGs, although won't turn down good racing or shooting games.