Developer Mike Bithell has explained why he's building his next project, Vampirium: 1997, as a deliberately stripped-back "immersive sim" rather than a full 3D game. Announced earlier this month, the game replaces detailed environments with text, menus and a positional map, a stark contrast to Bithell's previous licensed work such as John Wick Hex and Tron: Identity. The change follows the poor commercial performance of Tron: Identity, which forced Bithell Games to lay off most of its staff, leaving the studio smaller but creatively independent.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Bithell said this minimalist "im-slim" approach lets him add new gameplay mechanics, or "verbs", in a matter of days rather than the lengthy development time required for equivalent features in a traditional 3D game. He described the format as taking the exploratory, open-ended spirit of immersive sims and abstracting it into a tile-based structure, allowing him to "massively overinvest" in the range of player possibilities. He cited an example where a playtester's question about pushing a character led to a quickly implemented new mechanic, suggesting the streamlined production process is working, though he remains unsure whether players will respond to the finished game. Vampirium: 1997 can currently be wishlisted on Steam.