Co-op horror hit Lethal Company remains in Steam early access just over two years after launch. After recently releasing a long-simmering text adventure called Welcome To The Dark Place, solo creator Zeekerss wants to focus on finishing his best-known game, setting aside "a vision" for what Lethal Company 2 might look like.
Speaking with GamesRadar+ over email, Zeekerss says, "I haven't had anyone ask me about a sequel to Lethal Company, but I know people really want more updates to it! It's still in early access because I have a lot left to do. As for Lethal Company 2, I have a vision for what that ought to be, and it surpasses my own ambition."
There's a non-zero chance that Zeekerss, propelled by the huge success of Lethal Company, could one day build a team of developers to help make Lethal Company 2. But for now, he's happy flying solo.
"In the future, if I become bold enough to gather a team to work with me, it could happen, but I'm more excited by the idea of working on other ideas solo," he says of a still hypothetical Lethal Company 2.
Last year, Zeekerss shared that he'd experienced a bit of burnout after working on Lethal Company for so long. Developing and finally releasing Welcome To The Dark Place, in the works in some capacity since Zeekerss' "2015/2016" days as a Roblox creator, was "very refreshing" at times thanks to its narrative focus.
"But actually, this project has made me realize that I really enjoy making mechanics in normal games, because that feels like it has a lot more variety and challenges in the process," he says. "For Welcome To The Dark Place, instead of mechanics, there are rules and conventions and patterns, which I invented in my head and simply choose to follow. One such rule is that the player must always be able to listen to doors before opening them. In a normal game, that would be a hard-coded ability, a button the player can always press; but here, I am always in complete control of whatever the player is able to do."
With Welcome To The Dark Place done and dusted, Zeekerss reckons he'll "have less distraction" now. And with Lethal Company's success in his sails, he could make and do anything he wanted for the rest of his life. So, I asked him what he does want to do.
"After Lethal Company, I have a good handful of ideas for games, some big and some little," he says. "I have an itch to make a sequel or spiritual successor to The Upturned, a game using motion controls with two hands to interact with the environment, a party game collection in the same vein as Wii Play, an open-world stealth game about being hunted across a vast distance, and a game involving a car. But for now my attention is going to be on finishing Lethal Company."
