Artur Laczkowski, the independent developer of the third-person horror exploration game Death of Rose, announced over his Twitter page that the game was officially canceled. Laczkowski has stated that Death of Rose was inspired by the Silent Hill franchise, as well as the works of Supermassive Games, the developers behind the game Until Dawn and the Dark Pictures franchise.
According to Laczkowski, the game's cancellation is due to feeling as though he is not currently able to realize the game as he had envisioned it. The announcement also states, however, that Death of Rose might resurface eventually, in the form of a different project.
Death of Rose would have followed a man named Scott as he explored an abandoned school rumored to have been used as a cult's grounds of worship. The game was said to have a heavy emphasis on story and characters, with Scott frequently exchanging interactive dialogue with his best friend Beth over a walkie-talkie. It's in this aspect that the game truly shows its inspiration from Supermassive Game's horror titles, which are also well known for providing character-driven stories.
Originally, Death of Rose was slated to release on February 20th, very shortly after its announcement. On February 20th, Laczkowski posted that the game would be delayed until March in order to perfect it, and due to "a very big situation" that he couldn't talk about at the moment. In the same post, he stated that he would be sharing gameplay footage shortly, though unfortunately, neither the gameplay nor an explanation of the "situation" seems to have been released yet.
Laczkowski has a fair amount of experience in horror games, as he works at Bloober Team, a developer in Krakow, Poland, which is perhaps best known for its horror exploration games Blair Witch, Layers of Fear, and Observer. As well, Laczkowski has developed a recreation of the demo for P.T., a planned game in the Silent Hill franchise, which was cancelled by Konami.
The world of indie development is a difficult one frequented by delays and cancellations. Death of Rose, which would have been Laczkowski's first official, independent release, sadly for horror fans, seems to have fallen victim to this trend.
Death of Rose is currently on indefinite hiatus.